PTI lawmakers booked for ‘attack on Keamari DC office’ get bail

Four Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers who have been booked for allegedly attacking and ransacking the Keamari deputy commissioner’s office over alleged rigging in the second phase of the local government elections in Karachi obtained pre-arrest interim bail from an anti-terrorism court on Thursday.

MNA Ataullah Khan, MPAs Bilal Ghaffar, Saeed Afridi and Shabbir Qureshi and 150 to 200 party workers have been booked for their alleged involvement in arson, ransacking and causing terrorism at the DC/DRO office on January 18.

On Thursday, the administrative judge of the anti-terrorism courts granted pre-arrest bail to 15 applicants, including the four lawmakers, against a surety of Rs30,000 each. He adjourned the hearing until January 28 for confirmation or otherwise of the interim bail.

Advocate Zahoor Mehsood and Farhan Sardar, who represented the applicants, stated that the PTI leaders visited the DC office to record their peaceful protest against the delay in notifying the results of some of the union councils after the LG polls.

PPP activists who were also present there attacked and ransacked the DC office, yet the FIR was lodged against the applicants, the counsel said, adding that baseless allegations had been levelled against them by the complainant.

They argued that the case didn’t attract sections of the anti-terror law, and sections of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) were bailable. The court was pleaded to grant the accused pre-arrest bail as they were willing to cooperate with the police in the investigation.