Waseem Akhtar gets bail in over 25 cases

Karachi

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday granted interim pre-arrest bail to Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) nominee for city mayor, Waseem Akhtar, in around two dozen cases pertaining to charges related to sedition, treason, facilitating terrorists by arranging for their medical treatment, terrorism and violation of the loud speaker act.

Akhtar had approached the SHC for obtaining bail in connection with cases registered against members of the party’s Rabita Committee, at different police stations, following MQM chief’s controversial speech targeting state institutions during a party address.

A numbers of cases against the party chief and other senior members of the MQM were lodged over complaints of conspiring against and committing offence against the state, while others included terrorism charges.

FIRs 84, 85, 54, 55, 352, 219 of 2015 were registered under Sections 120-A and B, 121, 122, 123-A and 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Sections 6 and 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 in Gadap, Malir Cantonment, SITE, Quaidabad, New Town, Memon Goth, Steel Town, Sohrab Goth, Sukhan, Sachal, Bin Qasim Town, Memon Goth and Shah Latif Town police stations.

Having been named a co-accused of under detention former petroleum minister Dr Asim Hussain, Akhtar was granted protective pre-arrest bail in the terrorists-harbouring case and arranging for their medical treatment. Other accused in the case included MQM leaders Abdul Rauf Siddiqui, Anees Qaimkhani, Saleem Shahzad and Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) leader Qadir Patel.

As for the case related to violation of the loud speaker act, along with Akhtar former MQM MNA Syed Haider Abbas Rizvi was also granted a two-week protective bail against a surety bond of Rs10,000.

The applicants’ counsel Khawaja Naveed Ahmed,  Mehfooz Yar Khan, Mehmood Yousfi and Sarwat Israr argued that the applicants had tried to surrender before the trial courts which had issued arrest warrants against them, but due to the presence of the police they could not do so. Thus, they decided to approach the high court to obtain protective bail in order for them to appear before the trial courts safely.

The SHC had also granted protective bail to Akhtar in two treason cases - he was booked by the police on complaint of two citizens under treason and terrorism charges following a television interview given to a private television channel. The complainants had accused the to-be mayor of inciting the public to violence and harming the national interests of the country.