PESHAWAR: A local court in Peshawar on Monday acquitted 74 Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers, including Senate by-election candidate Irfan Saleem, in a case related to violent incidents of May 9, 2023 for lack of concrete evidence.
Additional Sessions Judge Faraz Ahmad approved the acquittal petitions filed under Section 265-K of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The accused were represented by Advocate Muhammad Adil Butt.
In its detailed judgment, the court observed that the prosecution case was based merely on assumptions and unproven allegations, with no direct, circumstantial, or legally admissible evidence linking the accused to the offence.
The court stated that continuing the trial in the absence of solid evidence would be a futile exercise, amounting to unnecessary harassment and misuse of the judicial process. It is worth noting that violent protests erupted across various parts of the country, including Peshawar, on May 9–10, 2023, an event linked to the arrest of PTI founder Imran Khan, which led to multiple cases being registered against party leaders and workers in Peshawar and other districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The first information report (FIR) in the present case was registered on May 10, 2023, at Faqirabad Police Station under various sections of the Pakistan Penal Code, including murder, criminal conspiracy, and rioting.
According to the FIR, 250 to 300 unidentified people, allegedly accompanied by local PTI leadership, formed an unlawful assembly and opened indiscriminate fire, resulting in the deaths of two individuals, identified as Javed and Bilal.
During the investigation, police nominated 74 accused persons, including PTI Peshawar district president and Senate by-election candidate Irfan Saleem. PTI leadership alleged that both deceased people were their own workers and had been killed in police firing.
The court was informed that the legal heirs of the deceased Bilal, including his parents and wife, appeared before the court and recorded a joint statement, stating they did not hold any accused responsible and had no objection to their acquittal.
The defense counsel argued that the accused had been falsely implicated, noting that none of them were named in the FIR and no eyewitness evidence existed against them. He requested the court to acquit the accused, arguing that even after a full trial, conviction was not possible.
In its ruling, the court noted that the accused were neither named in the FIR nor arrested from the crime scene; their alleged involvement surfaced only during investigation. It observed that no private witness, injured person, or eyewitness had identified them.
The judgment highlighted that no identification parade was conducted, which is a crucial requirement when an FIR is initially registered against unknown persons.
