Haleem Adil Sheikh indicted in rioting case

A local court on Saturday framed charges on the leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly, Haleem Adil Sheikh, and others in a case pertaining to rioting and blocking the main Super Highway.

Sheikh, who is a leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and his associates were booked for allegedly inciting violence and disrupting the intra-country traffic on the Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway (M-9) on February 6.

The suspects, who are on bail, denied the charges and opted to contest the case, maintaining that the case was fabricated against them at the behest of the Sindh government.

Following the indictment, the District Malir judicial magistrate VII ordered the investigation officer to bring witnesses against the accused on the next hearing on April 17.

According to the prosecution, the PTI leader along with 200 to 250 party activists had blocked both tracks of the highway and resorted to violence when police officials tried to persuade them to clear it for the vehicular movement.

The FIR was lodged against them under the sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapons), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint) and 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions) of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Gadap City police station on behalf of the state.

Speaking to the media after his indictment, Sheikh criticised the Pakistan Peoples Party-led provincial government.

He alleged that funds allocated to deal with stray dogs were embezzled. “Sindh rather needs an anti-corruption vaccine than anything else,” he remarked, taking a jibe at the provincial government.

He said that the lawlessness was rampant across the province as the government used its machinery to suppress its critics.

He asked PPP Co-chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to look at the problems of the public in the province before advancing his agenda against the PTI-led federal government. Speaking of the murder of journalist Ajay Lalwani in Sukkur, the PTI leader said anyone who spoke the truth was in danger here.

After an incarceration of one-and-a-half months, Sheikh was recently released from the prison after he obtained bail in all of the cases lodged against him. He was arrested on February 16 after a clash between the PTI and PPP supporters during the by-poll in PS-88 constituency.