By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: A Faisalabad anti-terrorism court on Monday sentenced key opposition leaders from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, including Omar Ayub, Shibli Faraz, and Zartaj Gul, along with 56 others, to 10 years in prison over an attack on former interior minister Rana Sanaullah’s residence during violent protests on May 9, 2023.
The court acquitted 34 others in a case that deepens the country’s political crisis, as the opposition party of former prime minister Imran Khan faces mounting legal challenges.
The riots, sparked by the arrest of Khan in a graft case, saw PTI supporters ransack military installations and state buildings across Pakistan. Khan, ousted in a 2022 no-confidence vote, was briefly released but has been jailed since August 2023 on various charges, including a 14-year sentence in a land graft case he calls politically motivated.
Judge Javed Iqbal Sheikh delivered the verdict in a case filed at Faisalabad’s Samanabad police station on May 9, 2023. PTI’s legal team head, Malik Khalid Shafiq, said 59 of the 109 accused received 10-year sentences of rigorous imprisonment, while 16 were given three-year terms. Among the convicted were PTI figures Muhammad Ahmad Chattha, Sheikh Rashid Shafique, Ashraf Khan Sohna, Rai Hassan Nawaz, Rai Murtaza Iqbal, former MNA Kanwal Shauzab, and former Punjab MPA Farah Agha, many already convicted in other May 9 cases on July 31.
Former information minister Fawad Chaudhry, who quit PTI after the riots, and MNA Zain Qureshi, son of PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi, were acquitted, having also been cleared in three other Faisalabad cases tied to the unrest.
The convictions trigger automatic disqualification from parliament under Article 63(1)(g) of Pakistan’s Constitution, which bars those convicted of crimes involving moral turpitude. Ayub, Faraz, Chattha, and Gul recently lost their seats due to prior May 9 convictions.
Gul, denying the charges on X, rejected claims she attended a May 7, 2023, meeting at Khan’s Zaman Park residence in Lahore to plan the protests. “I was in Dera Ghazi Khan, attending a fateha, an inauguration, a wedding, and other events,” she said, citing social media evidence submitted in court.mAyub also dismissed the accusations. “I was never at Sanaullah’s house,” he said. “The prosecution witnesses were called liars by a Sargodha ATC last year, and their testimony was rejected. This brings my total jail time to 40 years.”
The verdict follows a string of convictions in May 9 cases, with over 100 PTI leaders and workers sentenced in recent weeks. On July 22, a Lahore court jailed PTI’s Yasmin Rashid, Omar Sarfraz Cheema, and Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed for 10 years over vandalism at Sherpao Bridge, though Qureshi was acquitted. On July 31, a Faisalabad court convicted over 100 PTI members, including Ayub, Faraz, and Gul, in three cases. On August 1, a Sargodha court sentenced PTI worker Muhammad Ismail to life imprisonment for attacking a Mianwali judicial complex.
The deadline for anti-terrorism courts to decide May 9 cases expired earlier this month, leading to daily hearings, Shafiq told local media. Last week, the Kasur Crime Control Department presented former Faisalabad Civil Lines station house officer Zeeshan Khalid Randhawa as a witness. Randhawa, currently detained in a separate kidnap and murder case, testified in the ongoing trial.
Khan, who has been jailed since August 2023 on charges he claims are politically motivated, was granted bail in eight May 9 cases by Pakistan’s top court last week. The former premier, barred from contesting the 2024 general elections, has dismissed all charges against him and his party as attempts to suppress PTI’s influence.
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