Photo courtesy Elan
An Anti-Terrorism Court in Quetta on Thursday granted bail to fashion designer Khadija Shah in a case pertaining to the May 9 riots, allowing her to return to Lahore.
Shah had surrendered herself to Punjab police in Lahore on May 23, following which she remained incarcerated on various charges linked to the May 9 riots, including incitement, particularly in the attack on the Lahore Corps Commander’s House.
After several months, during which she kept securing bail before being placed under judicial remand again after police kept naming her in various cases linked to the May 9 riots, she secured bail on Nov. 15 in the last of four cases in which she was detained. However, prior to her release, the Lahore deputy commissioner issued 30-day detention orders for her under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) ordinance.
She had subsequently challenged the detention in the Lahore High Court as “unlawful and unconstitutional,” with the Punjab government withdrawing the orders on Dec. 11. However, before she could be released, Quetta police filed a request in the ATC of Judge Abhar Gul seeking her transit remand. The court accepted the request and granted the investigating officer her custody for two days. On Dec. 16, when the police remand expired, she was again remanded in police custody for seven days.
On Thursday, the ATC issued her release orders after rejecting a Quetta police plea for an extension in her physical remand. According to her lawyer, she was released for want of evidence, adding her name had been dropped from the FIR.
Shah, a vocal supporter of the PTI on and off social media, was arrested following a mass crackdown against the party’s workers and supporters in the wake of the May 9 riots.