An anti-terrorism court here on Monday charged top Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader and former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in connection with the burning of a police station during the May 9 violence last year.
Mr Qureshi, 68, was brought to Kot Lakhpat jail here from Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail amid tight security. Several cases, including arson, related to the May 9 violence are registered against him at the Shadman police station.
The court had summoned Mr Qureshi to initiate impeachment proceedings against him and ordered the prosecution to produce witnesses at the next hearing on July 22.
However, Mr Qureshi was produced before ATC Judge Khalid Arshad but he denied the charges.
After the hearing, a court official told Press Trust of India, “When Mr Qureshi was produced before the ATC judge, charges were framed against him for allegedly inciting the burning of Lahore’s Shadman police station. Mr Qureshi pleaded innocent and said a false case was registered against him because he was loyal to Imran Khan.”
The indictment of Mr Qureshi, who is also the PTI vice-chairman, came hours before the Pakistan government announced its decision to ban Khan’s PTI for its alleged involvement in anti-state activities.
Lahore police had registered a case against several PTI leaders and workers for attacking and burning down Shadman police station during the May 9 riots that broke out following the arrest of former prime minister Imran Khan by the Rangers in an alleged corruption case.
Apart from this case, several cases related to the May 9 violence have been registered against Mr Qureshi in Lahore alone.
Mr Qureshi has been in jail since he and Mr Khan, 71, were sentenced to 10 years in prison by a Pakistani court for violating the Official Secrets Act by making a diplomatic cable public while the PTI founder was in power.
Though the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on June 3 acquitted Mr Khan and Mr Qureshi in the Sifar case and suspended their 10-year sentence, they remain in jail as they are named in several cases in connection with the May 9 violence in Pakistan.
Earlier this year, Mr Qureshi was charged in eight more cases related to the May 9 violence.
Riots broke out across the country on May 9 after Khan was arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in a £190 million corruption case. He is currently facing over 200 cases and has been in jail since August last year.
Hundreds of PTI workers and senior leaders were jailed on May 9 last year for their involvement in violence and attacks on military installations, including Jinnah House, ISI building in Faisalabad and General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)