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       LAHORE: Four convicted PTI leaders — Dr Yasmin Rashid, Mian Mehmood ur Rasheed, Ejaz Chaudhry and Omer Sarfraz Cheema — have requested the chief justice of Pakistan to instruct the appellate courts to take up all appeals against their convictions and decide the matters within two months.

       The demand was made by them in a letter to the chief justice of Pakistan on Tuesday.

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       The letter seeks attention of the chief justice to the miscarriage of justice inflicted upon them through proceedings before the two anti-terrorism courts in Lahore, which were allegedly tainted by mala fide political considerations rather than by lawful cause.

       “From the very outset, our arrests, prosecutions and convictions have been orchestrated not by legal merit but by politically motivated manipulation. Our fundamental rights have been trampled upon through multiple serious violations:

       Sections 1.6 and 19 of the ATA, which mandate the right to fair trial and due process were disregarded entirely. Established legal benchmarks regarding evidentiary burden, standards of proof and terrorism-related jurisprudence were ignored. Numerous prosecution witnesses were thoroughly discredited through cross-examination, revealing contradictions and lack of corroboration. Yet their evidence was treated as conclusive.”

       The jailed leaders pointed out lack of corroborating evidence — CCTV, geofencing, safe city footage and digital records to substantiate the charges laid against them.

       Despite being imprisoned for 28 months, the prosecution had yet to prove allegations against Mr. Imran Ahmad Khan Niazi, who was allegedly the principal conspirator, they wrote.

       “Those who held press conferences to quit the PTI have been given clean chits, pre-arrest and post-arrest bails granted and their challans delayed so far. Prosecution has selectively submitted challans of a few out of 34 persons held guilty by the joint investigation team in September 2023.”

       They appealed to the chief justice to issue orders for conclusion of the appellate proceedings. They requested him to direct the Lahore High Court to conclude all pending appeals and suspension applications of political prisoners within two months.

       Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2025