PHC bars police from arresting JUIF leader, others

MANSEHRA: The Peshawar High Court’s Abbottabad Circuit bench on Wednesday barred the Mansehra police from arresting Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUIF) leader Mufti Kifayatullah, president of traders body Haroonur Rasheed and around 110 other protesters, who took to streets to protest the electrocution of a nanbai during a crackdown on polythene bags last month.

“The court barred the police from arresting the protesters and ordered the subordinate judiciary to suspend all sorts of proceedings against them,” Waqarul Muluk, the counsel for the petitioner, told a press conference here.

Flanked by some of the petitioners, he said the PHC’s bench barred the police from arresting petitioners while giving them interim relief.

“The judges admitted our writ petition that sought quashing of the first information report lodged under Section 324 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) against over the protesters,” he added. He said that petitioners were peacefully protesting the electrocution of a nanbai Mohammad Asif during the assistant commissioner’s crackdown on polythene bags in September.

“The police booked peaceful protesters with mala fide intentions on trumped-up charges under section 324/353/506/341/427/337 - A (II)/ 148/149 of the PPC,” Muluk said.

He said a peaceful assembly was the legal right of the protesters but they were deprived of it and were arrested without any justification.