PTM leader Ali Wazir, 10 others indicted in sedition case

An Anti-Terrorism Court-XII (ATC-XII) in Karachi on Wednesday indicted Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) leader and MNA Ali Wazir and 10 others in a sedition case registered against them on charges of sedition related to delivering a hate speech against state institutions during a protest rally in the city last year.

Police had booked PTM Chief Manzoor Pashteen along with Wazir, MNA Mohsin Dawar, Muhammad Shafi and Hidayatullah Pashteen for committing sedition by inciting the public to wage war against the state through provocative speeches against the security forces at a rally in Sohrab Goth Karachi.

MNA Wazir was produced before the court when the ATC judge conducted the trial in the judicial complex inside the central prison.

Javed Raheem, Sher Ayub Khan, Noorullah Tareen, Naimatullah alias Adil Shah, Ibrahim Khan, Muhammad Sher Khan, Baseerullah, Muhammad Tahir alias Qazi Tahir, Muhammad Sarwar and Ahsanullah also appeared before the court.

The judge framed charges against the accused to which they pleaded not guilty and opted to contest them.

As per the charges, SHO Sub-inspector Riaz Ahmed Bhutto had received information that 11 PTM leaders and some 1,800-2,000 members and supporters of PTM in an open ground opposite Al-Asif Square were preparing for a gathering without getting requisite permission from the department concerned.

“MNA Wazir, the 10 PTM leaders and three proclaimed offenders, including the PTM chief Pashteen, delivered hate speech against state institutions in Urdu and Pashto languages.”

“Such speeches were recorded and got translated, which revealed that those hatred speeches were against armed forces, civil armed forces, institutions of Pakistan and the State of Pakistan and a community, all of your common intention and with common object agreed to conspire, promote and instigate racial, ethnic violence in different groups and communities of Pakistan and also to initiate overawe war against Pakistan, which falls within the ambit of Sections 12-B, 121, 121-A, 124-A, 153, 153-A, 505, 505(ii), 506, 188, 33 PPC read with the Section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, within the cognizance of this court,” read the statement of charges.

On October 13, the ATC had declared Pashteen, Dawar and two others as proclaimed offenders in the case.

The Mukhtiarkars of Karachi’s Baldia and Saddar sub-divisions and deputy commissioners of Peshawar and South Waziristan had filed their reports regarding completion of the process of attachment of movable or immovable properties owned or possessed by the accused PTM leaders.

The revenue officers had stated that the process to trace their properties, as required under Section 88 of the CrPC, had been completed during which it was found that none of them own/possess any movable or immovable property in Karachi, Peshawar and South Waziristan.

After declaring them proclaimed offenders, the judge had directed the office to keep the case against the proclaimed offenders on dormant till their arrest or surrender.