Policemen arrest Opposition Leader in Balochistan Assembly Sardar Yar Muhammad Rind outside the Supreme Court building in Islamabad on Thursday. – Photo by Online

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday granted interim bail to Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid (PML-Q) MPA, Sardar Yar Mohammad Rind, and ordered his release, provided there were no other pending cases against him, DawnNews reported.

A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, resumed the hearing on an appeal filed by the former federal minister and incumbent provincial lawmaker against an anti-terrorism court’s earlier conviction of him.

During the hearing, the details Rind”s case were presented in the court and his counsel Advocate Akram Sheikh termed the trial court’s earlier decision as one based on the prosecution’s view, adding that, his client was not represented during the trial and was sentenced without being able to argue his case. He requested the court to consider the fact that the earlier sentencing was the result of a trial held against Rind in absentia.

The apex court granted interim bail to the  PML-Q lawmaker upon  submission of two sureties amounting to Rs 500,000 each.

The leader of the opposition in the Balochistan Assembly was arrested on Nov 1 from the Supreme Court’s building when he appeared at the premises for the hearing of his plea against the verdict of an anti-terrorism court in Quetta which handed him life imprisonment.

Earlier in June 2011, the anti-terrorism court had convicted Sardar Yar Mohammad Rind and his son, in absentia, among four others, of kidnapping a man and had sentenced them to life imprisonment.