LAHORE: An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Lahore has instructed the police to detain Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Marriyum Aurangzeb in connection with a hate speech case and present her in court by December 9.
The directive was given by ATC Judge Abher Gul Khan, who mandated the concerned station house officer (SHO) to carry out Aurangzeb’s arrest following the issuance of non-bailable arrest warrants due to her failure to appear before the court.
A terrorism case has been filed against Aurangzeb, along with Mian Javed Latif, Sohail Khan (Managing Director of state-run Pakistan Television), and others for allegedly attempting to incite animosity by using religious sentiments against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan.
Latif and Aurangzeb were accused of making contentious statements under their party’s direction to stoke religious hostility against the former prime minister.
During the recent court session, the judge rescinded the non-bailable arrest warrant against Latif as he appeared in court. However, Advocate Farhad Ali Shah, representing both Javed Latif and Marriyum Aurangzeb, appeared before the court.
Judge Khan sought information about the whereabouts of the PML-N leaders, learning that Latif had appeared but Aurangzeb had not.
Consequently, the judge issued a non-bailable arrest warrant for the former information minister and directed all the accused individuals to be present in court on December 9.
This warrant was issued after their initial failure to appear in court. The judge has set December 9 as the deadline for the prosecution to respond to Aurangzeb’s request for acquittal, in which she denied any involvement in incitement through her speeches during talk shows and pleaded innocence.
(Islamabad51-Newsdesk)
