Court orders release of JUI-F leader Mufti Kifayatullah

MANSEHRA: The Abbottabad circuit bench of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday ordered release of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leader Mufti Kifayatullah on bail over a surety bond of Rs100,000.

“The Abbottabad circuit bench has granted bail to Mufti Kifayatullah in all three cases lodged against him by police under various sections of law,” Bilal Khan, the counsel for the JUI-F leader, told reporters here. The Two-member’s bench, comprising Justice Shakeel Arshad and justice Ahmad Ali Khan, pronounced the verdict following Mufti Kifayatullah’s counsel and additional advocate general completed arguments. The court also ordered Mufti Kifayatullah to submit a surety bond of Rs100,000 with local magistrate that he would not challenge government’s writ about Covid-19 pandemic. Advocate Bilal Khan told reporters that his client Mufti Kifayatullah had raised voice for a respectable burial of those died after contracting Covid-19.He said that the court also ordered Mufti Kifayatullah to abide by orders issued by government from time -to - time in connection with Covid-19 pandemic. The Abbottabad circuit bench couldn’t take up bail petition of JUI-F leader on April 29 because of the death of Mansehra District Bar Association’s former president advocate Naseem Khan Swati. A police party had arrested Mufti Kifayatullah when he was on way back home in Tarangri village from Mansehra town after leading his party’s deputy district head, Shah Abdul Aziz’s funeral prayer, who had died of Covid-19 on April 14.

Mufti Kifayatullah had also refused to be tested for Covid-19 fearing threat to his life at district jail in Mansehra last week.