ISLAMABAD: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Pakistan’s Faisalabad on Friday sent Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) chief Sahibzada Hamid Raza to jail for 10 years in a case relating to violent protests on May 9, 2023, Raza’s brother said.
Raza, a top aide of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, was convicted in the case along with several members of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on July 31 this year.
The riots erupted after Khan was briefly arrested in Islamabad on corruption charges on May 9, 2023, with his supporters attacking government buildings and military installations in several cities.
Thousands of PTI members and supporters were later detained and hundreds were charged under anti-terrorism laws in a sweeping crackdown, with some cases referred to military courts.
“He [Raza] was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the ATC on July 31 in 9th May cases and was arrested yesterday in Islamabad’s D-12 area while traveling from Peshawar to present himself before the court,” Raza’s brother, Hasan, told Arab News.
The government of PM Shehbaz Sharif accuses Khan’s party of staging violent protests in a bid to incite mutiny in the armed forces and to derail democracy in the country. The PTI denies inciting supporters to violence and says the government used the protests as a pretext to victimize the party. The government denies political persecution.
On Aug. 25, an ATC in Faisalabad convicted 75 out of 109 accused persons for an attack on the residence of then-Minister for Provincial Coordination Rana Sanaullah during the May 2023 riots.
Among those sentenced to 10 years were senior Khan aides, Omar Ayub Khan, Shibli Faraz and Zartaj Gul Wazir as well as Sheikh Rashid Shafiq, Rai Murtaza Iqbal, Kanwal Shauzab, Rai Hassan Nawaz, Ahmad Chattha, Ansar Iqbal, Bilal Ijaz, Ashraf Sohna, Mehr Javed and Shakeel Niazi.
Prior to the Aug. 25 verdict, courts in Lahore and Sargodha also handed down similar sentences of up to 10 years to other PTI leaders and workers linked to the May 2023 riots.
Khan has himself been jailed since August 2023, when he was convicted of illegally selling state gifts, a ruling that also barred him from contesting the 2024 general elections. He is currently serving a 14-year jail sentence in a land graft case he says is politically motivated to keep him away from public office.
After Khan’s PTI was restricted from contesting 2024 national polls on its electoral symbol, PTI members had contested the election as independents and later joined Raza’s SIC party.
