TOBA TEK SINGH: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Faisalabad on Monday sentenced key PTI leaders Omar Ayub, Shibli Faraz and Zartaj Gul and 72 others to up to 10 years’ imprisonment and ordered the confiscation of their properties for their involvement in an attack on former interior minister and PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah Khan’s house during the May 9, 2023 riots.
While pronouncing the verdict, Judge Javed Iqbal Sheikh of the ATC also acquitted 34 others, including former federal minister Fawad Chaudhry who quit the PTI in the wake of the May 9 riots and PTI MNA Makhdoom Shah Zain Qureshi, for want of evidence.
Among the convicts, 59 opposition party leaders and workers, including Omar Ayub, Zartaj Gul, Shibli Faraz, Kanwal Shozeb, MPA Rai Murtaza Iqbal, MNAs Rai Hassan Nawaz, Sheikh Rashid Shafiq (nephew of former federal minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad), ex-minister Ashraf Khan Sohna, Farkhunda Kokab and Muhammad Ahmad Chatha, were awarded 10-year jail terms, while 16 others including, MPA Sheikh Shahid Javed, were sentenced to three years’ imprisonment.
Just like other lawmakers who were disqualified after their recent convictions in May 9 cases, the members of national and provincial assemblies convicted in Rana Sanaullah’s house attack case will automatically be disqualified under Article 63 of the Constitution.
Reacting to the court decision, PTI Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram called it “nothing more than brazen political victimisation”, aimed at muzzling the voices of PTI leaders, workers and supporters. He said they had committed no crime, yet they were being punished “solely for standing firmly against unconstitutional measures, the trampling of laws, gross human rights violations, the paralysis of state institutions, and the suppression of free speech”.
On July 31, the Faisalabad court convicted over 100 PTI leaders and workers in three similar cases registered by different police stations.
PTI legal team head Malik Khalid Shafiq told Dawn that 17 of the PTI leaders were sentenced to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment on July 31 in the three similar cases registered under same sections. He argued that the ATC violated Section 403 of the CrPC and Article 13 of Constitution, which did not allow double conviction for same offence, pointing out that he had moved an application in this regard.
Vowing to move Lahore High Court against the convictions, Advocate Shafiq said there was no evidence against any convict, claiming that it was either Rana Sanaullah’s ego or simply government’s directions to get the PTI parliamentarians disqualified that “illegal sentences” were being awarded.
Also, the PTI denounced the “political victimisation”, declaring that the party would relentlessly continue its struggle for rule of law, constitutional supremacy, and genuine democracy — come what may.
Zartaj Gul, Omar Ayub react
In separate posts on X, Zartaj Gul and Omar Ayub claimed they were innocent, following the court verdict.
Gul contended that the verdict was based on the argument that she was present in a Zaman Park meeting on May 7, 2023, where protest plans were reportedly made, but she was in her Dera Ghazi Khan constituency on that day, “attending a fateha, inauguration, wedding and other events”.
Ayub said he was never there outside Sanaullah’s house and the prosecution witnesses had not named him. “In addition, these prosecution witnesses’ testimony was rejected by ATC Sargodha last year. These prosecution witnesses were branded as liars by the ATC Sargodha judge. This brings the total jail sentences against me to 40 years.”
Ikram Junaidi in Islamabad also contributed to this report
Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2025