PTI’s Haleem Adil Sheikh arrested outside high court

Sindh Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) President Haleem Adil Sheikh was arrested outside the Sindh High Court (SHC) as he arrived at the high court on Wednesday seeking an injunction against his possible arrest.

As the PTI leader reached outside the SHC, a police team took him into custody and left the scene. Sheikh served as the leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly and was replaced weeks before the assembly’s dissolution. He has been one of those PTI leaders who did not abandon the party following the May 9 incidents.

He had arrived at the SHC seeking an injunction against his possible arrest as the police were seeking him in connection with the May 9 violence. After the May 9 riots, Sheikh had gone into hiding.

A video clip that was circulated on social media as well as aired on electronic media showed the police bundling him into their van outside the high court’s premises. Meanwhile, the Karachi police had not shared any statement about Sheikh’s arrest till the filing of this news story.

"We had come to seek justice, adhering to the principles of the constitution and law,” said Abdul Wahab Baloch, a PTI lawyer. He explained that a warrant had been issued against Sheikh in a corruption case in Jamshoro and he had come to the SHC against that warrant.

The lawyer stated that there were orders of the Peshawar High Court and Sindh High Court that forbade any arrest in an unknown case. He added that there was a heavy contingent of police outside the court but the chief justice of the SHC had ordered the police to withdraw from the vicinity of the court.

PTI condemns arrest

Following Sheikh’s arrest, PTI leaders condemned the police action and demanded immediate release of the former leader of the opposition of the Sindh Assembly, adds our correspondent. Sindh PTI Spokesperson Muhammad Ali Baloch said in a statement that Sheikh had been granted bail in all cases and despite court orders, police arrested him from the premises of the SHC.

The country was currently going through a period of lawlessness and people were facing hyperinflation, but the Sindh police were busy in the victimisation of PTI leaders and workers,Baloch said as he demanded immediate release of Sheikh.

Karachi PTI President Khurrum Sher Zaman deplored the arrest of the Sindh PTI president and remarked that the arrest was a disgraceful act in the presence of court orders and bail in all cases against him.

He said the Sindh police, as always, had made a spectacle of the constitution and rendered it powerless. He added that the police refrained from taking action against leaders of the Pakistan Peoples Party. In another statement, PTI leader Ali Palh denounced what he termed police high-handedness. “We have hope in the courts for justice, and we will seek relief from the courts,” he said.

SHC suspends NBW

The Sindh High Court on Wednesday suspended the non-bailable warrant against former opposition leader in the Sindh Assembly and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Haleem Adil Sheikh in a land encroachment case.

Shiekh’s counsel submitted that the trial court in Jamshoro issued a non-bailable warrant against the applicant though he was on bail and fully cooperating in the trial court proceedings. He said police were bent upon arresting the applicant and requested the court to suspend the trial court order.

The high court issued notices to the prosecutor general and others and called their comments, and in meantime it suspended the arrest warrant against the PTI leader. The court directed the applicant to appear before the trial court on the next date of the hearing. He also filed a petition against what he called illegal arrests of PTI activists in connection with several FIRs registered at different police stations of the province for staging protests against arrest of the PTI chairman on May 9.