May 9 riots: JIT grills Qureshi in Adiala jail

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi was grilled by a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) at the Adiala jail over incidents related to the May 9 riots, The News reported on Wednesday.

The eight-member JIT — led by Superintendent of Police (SP) Mohammad Usman — presented written questions and interrogated Qureshi for more than two and a half hours over his alleged involvement in last year's violence.

The development comes days after Qureshi, incarcerated in the Adiala prison, was acquitted alongside PTI founder Imran Khan in two cases pertaining to the long march vandalism.

Judicial Magistrate Ehtesham Alam, on Monday, had approved the acquittal against the petitions filed by Khan and Qureshi.

Others absolved in the said cases included Ali Mohammad Khan, Murad Saeed and former party leader Asad Umar.

On the same day, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) annulled Khan and Qureshi's conviction in the infamous cipher case containing charges of misusing and misplacing the classified diplomatic document.

IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb announced the short verdict on pleas challenging the conviction in the cipher case.

Both leaders were sentenced to 10 years each in prison in the cipher case in January this year.

'Beyond comprehension'

A day earlier, the IHC, while hearing a petition filed by Qureshi seeking details of cases registered against him, was told that a total of 38 cases had been registered against the politico — of which 17 are registered in various police stations in Islamabad.

The report revealed that not a single case had been registered against the ex-FM in Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Furthermore, the court was told that Qureshi doesn't face any case from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) or the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

During the hearing, PTI leader's counsel Taimoor Malik stressed that his client was, in fact, in Karachi on May 9.

At this, the IHC chief justice questioned the genuineness of the cases and remarked that two or three cases would have made sense but 38 were beyond comprehension.

Seeking a report from the assistant attorney general, the court adjourned the hearing until next week.