SHC seeks comments on Ali Wazir’s plea for transfer to KP

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday issued notice to the provincial prosecutor general on an application filed by Pushtoon Tahaffuz Movement leader and MNA Mohammad Ali Wazir against denial of his shifting to Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa (KP).

The MNA submitted in the application that an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi had on November 24 rejected an application filed by the investigation officer of the KP police who sought his custody in connection with a criminal case registered at Dera Ismail Khan.

A counsel for the applicant submitted that the ATC rejected the KP police’s application on ground that Wazir should not be transferred from Karachi to KP unless pending cases against him before the court had been concluded.

The counsel submitted that the order of the trial court was illegal and without any jurisdiction as the applicant was on bail in all three cases which were pending in Karachi. He submitted that the applicant was a permanent resident of KP and had been incarcerated in the Karachi prison for the last two years and during this period, his mother, children and wife once

met him.

He submitted that the applicant was entitled to be shifted to a KP prison which shall facilitate his family, relatives and other persons of his constituency to meet him in prison as he was an MNA from a South Waziristan constituency.

The high court was requested to set aside the trial court order and direct the presiding officer to hand over the custody of the applicant to police officials of KP for proceedings of pending cases registered against him in KP.

A division bench of the high court headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha after the preliminary hearing of the application issued notice to the prosecutor general and called his comments on January 19. The SHC in the meantime also issued notice to Wazir on state appeal against his acquittal in a sedition and hate speech case.