From Abid Usman
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) denied on Tuesday Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) MPA Bilal Yaseen’s request to transfer his case from the court of a judge of an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) as he believed the current judge to be biased towards the accused.
The hearing for the transfer application was heard by LHC Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti. The MPA requested for his case to be transferred to a different judge stating that “the judge wants to give undue advantage to some of the accused persons”, adding that he believed the ATC judge to be “under some pressure and influence from the accused”.
Responding to the petitioner, Justice Bhatti stated that the order could be challenged if the verdict came against him. The PML-N MPA’s counsel then withdrew the petition which was later dismissed as withdrawn. In his petition, Bilal Yaseen stated that he had registered a case on January 1, under section 324/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code with section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act 1997. Upon filing the case, his supplementary statement was recorded in which the plaintiff named Hamid Mahmood and Asad Hamid as the accused. The MPA further stated that the police did not arrest the accused and neither did the accused obtain bail.
Moreover, the MPA said that the ATC-III judge made remarks before hearing the complainant’s counsel, and thus remains doubtful of the judge’s impartiality.
The petitioner further argued that in contrast to other cases, the duration between the dates set for hearing bail applications was short, giving rise to the presumption of bias.
Within his transfer plea, Bilal Yaseen stated that he has lost faith in the trial court and if the case is not transferred, he shall suffer irreparable loss and injury.
On December 31 2021, MPA Bilal Yaseen was shot and injured by unidentified assailants in Lahore.
According to police officials, the men were on two motorcycles and opened fire on the PML-N MPA following his visit to a party worker in the Data Darbar area of the city.
The MPA suffered two bullet injuries in his leg and stomach, a police official said, adding that he was rushed to the Mayo Hospital, where he underwent treatment.
On January 13, the police arrested the duo involved in shooting and injuring Yaseen.
The alleged shooters, identified as Sajid and Fakhar Alam, were nabbed in a raid on a hideout located in Shahdara.
They were caught in a covert operation after at least 10 raids in various areas of the city, with at least 16 teams of the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) working on the case.
Furthermore, a police spokesperson said Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and Inspector General (IG) Police Rao Sardar Ali Khan were directly monitoring the progress into the case.
