ISLAMABAD: A district and sessions court in Islamabad on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur in the alleged liquor and illegal weapons recovery case.

Judicial Magistrate Mubashir Hassan issued the warrant after no representative appeared on behalf of Gandapur in today’s hearing.

The court directed authorities to arrest CM Gandapur and produce him before it on September 17.

The development comes a day after an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Lahore acquitted PTI leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi while sentencing Yasmin Rashid, Ejaz Chaudhry, and others to 10 years in prison over a May 9 riots case related to violence at Rahat Bakery Chowk.

ATC Judge Manzar Ali Gul issued the verdict in the case of burning of a Supreme Court judge’s car at Rahat Bakery Chowk on May 9, 2023. The hearing was held in Kot Lakhpat Jail, Lahore.

Similarly, PTI leaders Mian Mehmood-ur-Rasheed and Umar Sarfraz Cheema were also awarded 10 years’ imprisonment each.

The court also awarded a five-year sentence to PTI leader Khadija Shah in the same case. However, Rubina Jameel and Afshan Tariq were acquitted.

Last month, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) de-notified many PTI lawmakers, including the opposition leaders in the Senate and National Assembly — Senator Shibli Faraz and Omar Ayub Khan — following their convictions in the May 9 cases.