PTI MPA Rabistan Khan sent to jail in LG poll violence case

KARACHI: A court on Monday sent to jail Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPA Rabistan Khan, who was held for his alleged involvement in violence during Sunday’s local government elections in the Gulshan-e-Maymar area.

Khan along with around 50 party workers has been booked for allegedly beating up a Pakistan Peoples Party candidate and his supporters outside a polling station within the jurisdiction of the Gulshan-e-Maymar police station.

The investigating officer produced the detained lawmaker before the judicial magistrate (West) and requested his physical remand for interrogation.The counsel for the lawmaker, however, opposing the IO’s request for the grant of his police remand, stated that Khan was badly tortured by over two dozen people, due to which he was feeling unwell and needed medical treatment. The magistrate, turning down the investigating officer’s plea, sent the MPA to jail and ordered his medical treatment.

An FIR was lodged against Khan and others under sections 324 (attempted murder), 337-A (punishment for shajjah), 171-F (punishment for undue influence or personation at an election), 365 (abduction), 511 (punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or for shorter terms) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) on the complaint of PPP candidate Hilal Rehmani.

Meanwhile, an East District judicial magistrate granted bail to another PTI lawmaker, Adeel Ahmed, who was arrested for allegedly attempting to snatch ballot papers from a presiding officer at a polling station in Shah Faisal Colony.

An FIR was lodged against him under sections 171 (wearing garb or carrying token used by public servant with fraudulent intent) and 382 (theft after preparation made for causing death, hurt or restraint in order to the committing of the theft) of the PPC. The Shah Faisal police filed the case on a complaint filed by the Korangi District’s focal person for the local government polls.

The magistrate directed him to furnish a surety of Rs50,000 to secure his release.Sindh Assembly opposition leader Haleem Adil Sheikh also reached the city courts to show solidarity with the detained lawmakers.

Separately, the administrative judge of anti-terrorism courts granted two-day police remand of PTI candidate Amjad Afridi and his two brothers detained over charges of beating a presiding officer and snatching ballots from him.