KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Wednesday declared chief of proscribed Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) Manzoor Pashteen, MNA Mohsin Dawar and two others as proclaimed offenders in a sedition case.
Police had booked the PTM chief, Muhammad Shafi, Hidayatullah Pashteen and MNAs Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar on sedition charges.
On Wednesday, Wazir was produced from the prison while others, who are on bail, also appeared before the ATC-XII judge who is conducting the trial in the judicial complex at the central prison.
The investigating officer submitted a report stating that the police was unable to trace Pashteen, Dawar, Shafi and Hidayatullah.
He further submitted the process of the proclamation of the accused, under section 87 of the Criminal Procedure Code, was complete. There was no likelihood of their arrest soon as well, he added.
The Mukhtiarkars of Karachi’s Baldia and Saddar subdivisions and deputy commissioners of Peshawar and South Waziristan also filed their reports regarding properties owned by the suspects.
The officers stated that their investigations found that none of the suspects owned any movable or immovable property in Karachi, Peshawar and South Waziristan.
Given the report of the IO, the judge ordered: “Therefore, these accused persons as named above are hereby declared as proclaimed offenders in this case”.
He directed the officers to keep the case against the proclaimed offenders on dormant till their arrest or surrender.
The judge also took the reports of the revenue officers on its record.
In June this year, the courts had ordered initiating the process of proclamation and attachment of the suspects’ properties after the investigating officer had declared the four men as untraceable.
According to the prosecution, the PTM leaders addressed a public gathering at Sohrab Goth on December 6, 2020, and allegedly incited the public against the state and used derogatory language against security forces.
Police had arrested Wazir in Peshawar in connection with the case on a request of the Sindh Police and had brought him to Karachi.