KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court on Saturday granted bail to a suspect in a case pertaining to instigating terrorism and harbouring criminals.

Usman Moazzam, general secretary of Pasban that had ties with the Jamaat-i-Islami, with his son Mohammad Ali Siddiqui and others was booked at the Samanabad police station last year.

In a bail application moved through his counsel Mohammad Farooq, the suspect submitted that he was framed in the cases, because he had impleaded the Rangers and police as respondents in a petition filed before the high court for recovery of his son, Saad Siddiqui, who went missing in June 2015.

The prosecution, however, opposed the plea.

After hearing both sides, the ATC-II judge granted bail to the suspect against a surety bond of Rs500,000. The Pasban leader had already obtained bail in another case lodged against him along with former petroleum minister Dr Asim Hussain and some other politicians for allegedly treating and harbouring suspected terrorists, political militants and gangsters at Dr Asim’s hospitals.

The Rangers had picked up Usman Moazzam in August last year and kept him under 90-day preventive detention for inquiry. Later, the paramilitary force handed him over to police after the registration of a case against him at the Samanabad police station under Sections 11V (directing terrorist activities), 21J (harbouring any person who committed an offence under this act) and 7 (act of terrorism) of Anti-terrorism Act, 1997.

Eight suspects including Dr Akmal Waheed and Sabiha Shahid, widow of slain suspected militant Shahid Khan alias Qari, were showed as absconders in the case.

Published in Dawn December 18th, 2016