SHC grants protective bail to Arif Alvi’s son

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday granted protective bail to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Awab Alvi in two cases registered at different police stations of Punjab.

Awab, who is former president Dr Arif Alvi’s son, had moved the SHC for obtaining protective and transitory bail in connection with two criminal cases registered against him at the Taxila and Rawalpindi police stations.

The petitioner’s counsel Ali Tahir had submitted in the petition that Awab was falsely involved in cases on the basis of political victimisation. He said the petitioner belonged to a political party that had been subjected to a campaign of targeted persecution for an extended period and this campaign included the removal of the party’s election symbol, prolonged imprisonment of its leader Imran Khan and the subjection of its party leadership.

He said the purpose of the FIRs was to harass the petitioner from continuing his peaceful political struggle against the government and requested the high court to grant him protective bail so that he could defend the charges against him in different courts of law.

The high court after a preliminary hearing of the petition granted protective bail to Awab till December 23 in each case with a direction to surrender before the relevant courts. The SHC also directed its office to fix the matter before a constitutional bench as the petitioner had also sought direction for the enforcement of his rights.

Uzair Baloch’s brother

The SHC issued notices to federal and provincial law officers, and the Rangers director general on a petition against enforced disappearance of alleged Lyari gangster Uzair Baloch’s brother. The petitioner, Razia Bibi, had submitted that Zubair Baloch was released by the court on December 4 but soon after his release, he was again picked up by personnel of law enforcement agencies and his whereabouts were still unknown.

The SHC was requested to direct the law enforcement agencies to produce the detainee and provide details of cases, if any, against him. The high court directed the respondents to file comments on the petition on December 11.