Haleem Adil released from prison after being granted bail in land grabbing case

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Haleem Adil Sheikh was released by prison authorities on Thursday evening after a court granted him post-arrest bail in a case pertaining to alleged land grabbing.

Sheikh, who is also the leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly, along with 10 others, was booked by the Anti-Encroachment Force (AEF) on a charge of illegally occupying 25 acres of state land in Scheme 33. He was arrested in the case from outside the Karachi central prison minutes after he was released on bail in a terrorism case on August 29.

The lawmaker through his lawyers filed the application with Special Court Sindh Public Property (Removal of Encroachment) Judge Khalique Hussain Larik, requesting him to order his release on bail.

After hearing arguments from both defence and prosecution sides, the judge granted him bail subject to the submission of a Rs100,000 surety bond. He ordered the prison authorities to release the accused forthwith if he was not required in any other case. He is required to appear before the court at the next hearing set for September 19.

Advocate Nasrullah Jalbani confirmed to The News that Sheikh had been released from the prison. According to the prosecution, Sheikh and 10 other people were allegedly illegally allotted 25 acres of state land for a cooperative housing society in Scheme 33, where they set up a cattle pen and warehouses. They were issued notices under the Sindh Public Property (Removal of Encroachment) Act, 2010, to vacate the land in question, but they didn’t do so.

An FIR was registered at the Anti-Encroachment police station, East, on the complaint of mukhtiarkar Zulfiqar Ali Mangi under Section 8(1) of the Sindh Public Property (Removal of Encroachment) Act, 2010. Earlier, the court had turned down AEF officials’ plea for grant of physical remand for interrogation.