SHC grants GDA leaders protective bail in arson, terrorism cases

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday granted protective bail to Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) leaders and former members of the National and provincial assemblies Ghulam Murtaza Khan Jatoi and his brother Masroor Khan Jatoi in a case pertaining to arson, attempt to murder, police encounter and terrorism.

The applicants had approached the SHC for obtaining protective bail in three terrorism-related cases registered in the Moro area. Their counsel Omer Soomro and Haq Nawaz Talpur submitted that they were politicians and had nothing to do with criminal activities. They submitted that the ruling political party was bent upon to arrest the applicants in false and fabricated cases and they were booked in three terrorism-related cases due to political victimisation.

The counsel submitted that the applicants feared their arrest due to mala fide intentions of the government, which wanted to harass and humiliate them. They submitted that police had registered FIRs against the petitioners in a clear violation of the court orders and a private complainant of the case had failed to provide sufficient evidence to connect the applicants in the cases.

The counsel added that the brothers had been implicated in the cases on the basis of a confessional statement of co-accused wherein, in the original FIR, they had not been nominated as accused.

They submitted that numerous FIRs had been registered in respect of an incident in Moro, whereas the high court had already granted protective bail to Murtaza and Masroor in identical cases.

The counsel submitted that the applicants were willing to surrender before the trial court and requested the high court to grant protective bail to them so that they could appear before the trial court and face the trial court proceedings.

A division bench of the SHC headed by Acting Chief Justice Mohammad Junaid Ghaffar, without touching the merits of the cases, granted protective bail to the applicants against a surety of Rs25,000 each and directed them to appear before the trial court within two weeks.