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Thursday March 28, 2024

Permanent NBWs issued for Khalid Maqbool, other MQM leaders

By Our Correspondent
August 21, 2018

A court on Monday issued permanent non-bailable warrants (NBWs) of arrest for the recently announced federal minister and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui as well as other party leaders for allegedly violating the loudspeaker act.

Hearing the case against the MQM leaders, the court of the South judicial magistrate declared Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Nasreen Jalil, Haider Abbas Rizvi and others proclaimed offenders as well as issued permanent NBWs for them.

The court also ordered that their movable and immovable properties are to be confiscated because they have failed to appear for the hearings of the case filed against them despite the fact that they have been repeatedly summoned.

The investigating officer (IO) submitted a report on the process of Section 87 (Proclamation for person absconding) and Section 88 (Attachment of property of person absconding) of the Criminal Procedure Code.

He said he was unable to trace and arrest the absconding accused, including Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Nasreen Jalil, Haider Abbas Rizvi, Kamal Pasha, Kanwar Naveed and Faisal Siddiqui.

The IO told the court that he has been trying to trace the whereabouts of the accused but to no avail. He said that one of the accused, namely Haider Abbas Rizvi, has fled out of the country while the others are beyond his reach.

He also said he has written to the relevant authorities to find out the details of the movable and immovable properties of the absconding accused. He asked the court to declare the case of the absconding accused part of the dormant file.

The MQM leaders are accused of violating the provisions of the loudspeaker act by staging a protest rally against the arrests of the then MQM workers in 2015. Dr Farooq Sattar is also among the accused but he has obtained bail.

An application was moved on his behalf claiming that he was abroad. The application requested that he be granted exemption for a day, which the court allowed. In 2015 the Soldier Bazaar police had registered a case against nine MQM leaders and nearly 2,000 unidentified party workers for violating the loudspeaker act after they staged their rally on MA Jinnah Road.

Earlier, a local had granted bail to MQM-Pakistan leader Dr Farooq Sattar in two cases in the sum of Rs20,000 each. Sattar, along with other party leaders, was believed to have disrupted law and order while staging a protest demonstration in 2015.

The two cases in which the MQM-P leader was granted bail pertain to disrupting law and order and violating the loudspeaker act that were registered at the Soldier Bazaar and New Town police stations.

Ahead of last month’s general elections, a District East returning officer had rejected Sattar’s nomination form for the NA-245 (East-IV) constituency because he did not mention the two criminal cases under way against him. The officer said Sattar had not even obtained bail in these cases and was wanted by the trial court.

Due to the MQM-P leader’s no-show in court for the hearing of the two cases, bailable arrest warrants were issued against him and other party leaders who were declared absconding. The 2015 protest staged outside the Chief Minister House had resulted in the then CM Syed Qaim Ali Shah ordering the registration of a case against the party leaders.

Three-year sentence

The East district & sessions judge announced a three-year prison term for MQM worker Zahid, alias Zahid Chashmu, who was convicted of injuring his political opponent Saeed Ahmed during a firing incident in the Landhi locality in 2016.

After examining the case, the court concluded that Zahid had wounded his political opponent and was liable to face time in prison for three years and six months. The accused, who was brought to the court for hearing the judgment, was sent back to prison to complete his sentence.