SHC seeks explanation for siege of courts

Karachi
The Sindh High Court took notice on Saturday of the police siege of its building and that of the anti-terrorism courts to arrest former home minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza and ordered the chief secretary, home secretary, the IGP and others to give an explanation for this action.
The directives came on an application filed by Mirza. The estranged Pakistan People’s Party leader submitted that police restrained him from appearing before an anti-terrorism court he was scheduled to appear for the extension of a pre-arrest bail in a case registered against him with the Darakhshan police station.
Mirza and his spouse, former National Assembly speaker Dr Fahmida Mirza, and their counsel Ashraf Samoo and Sheikh Javed Mir appeared before the court and submitted that this was the second attempt in which the hurdles were created for the petitioner to stop him from appearing before a court.
The counsel submitted that on the two occasions, the SHC and ATC buildings was surrounded by police, making it impossible for Mirza to appear before the court for a bail.
Mirza’s lawyers prayed to the court to extend the petitioner’s bail for seven more days so that he could seek a legal remedy in accordance with the law.
The court, before converting the application into a petition, directed its registrar to report as to whether or not its building as well as that of the ATCs had been surrounded by police.
The registrar submitted in his report to the court that the gates of the high court had been blocked by police vehicles making its impossible to enter or exit its premises.
Mirza’s counsel mentioned that on May 19, the court had also ordered protection for the petitioner and issued contempt notices to the IGP and the DIG South. An SHC division bench headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah noted the police siege of the court buildings not only appeared to be “an attempt to obstruct the course of the justice but also lowering the process and dignity of this court”.
The court issued notices to the chief secretary, the home secretary, the IGP, the Additional IGP Karachi and the DIG South, directing them to give an explanation for this action.
It also directed the provincial government not to register any more FIRs against Mirza without the permission of the court.

Bail extended
Besides, the SHC also extended Mirza’s protective bail for five more days, enabling him to approach the court concerned and to avail a legal remedy in accordance with the law.
Mirza also expressed apprehensions that police deployed in civvies and covered faces had been instructed to kill him on account of political enmity and he needed protection.
He said several bogus cases had been lodged against him to arrest him or kill him in a fake police encounter. He prayed to the court to grant him protection from being arrested in the cases against him till Monday.
The court observed that these were peculiar circumstances as the petitioner had remained a home minister and his wife was a national assembly speaker and now all of a sudden, terrorism cases were being registered against him.
It also noted that the entire police force appeared to be working only on the task of arresting the petitioner and that spoke volumes about what was going on. The court ordered that the petitioner should not be arrested in any case till May 25 and the IGP, the additional IGP Karachi and Rangers DG would provide him security to facilitate his appearance before the court on that date.
Despite the court orders about the provision of security to the petitioner, no police officer escorted the petitioner when he left the high court in the evening. Later, Mirza was provided security by Rangers who escorted him till his residence at 9pm. Talking to reporters at the high court building, Dr Fahmida Mirza condemned the siege and the arrest of her husband’s guards outside a court.
She said those private security guards had licensed weapons and the court had allowed her spouse to hire a private service for their protection. She condemned the manhandling of media personnel by police outside the court and demanded an inquiry into the incident.

Request for exemption
ATC-III dismissed a plea of Zulfiqar Mirza seeking exemption from appearance in court in a case lodged at Darakhshan police station. Mirza is facing charges under the provisions 293, 294 and 295 of the Anti-Terrorism Act and in some of the cases pending with the ATC concerned Mirza and around 107 of his accomplices have been granted interim bail till June 2.