KARACHI: An antiterrorism court granted on Friday interim pre-arrest bail to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf senior leader Ali Haider Zaidi in a case pertaining to attacking and ransacking the office of the deputy commissioner-Keamari over a delay in announcement of the local government results of some union committees.

Mr Zaidi along with four lawmakers and around 200 party activists was booked for allegedly staging a violent protest within the jurisdiction of SITE-A police station on Jan 18.

On Friday, the opposition party’s provincial chief appeared before the administrative judge of the ATCs and moved an application seeking bail to avoid his arrest in the present case.

His counsel, Zahoor Mehsood, argued they the PTI leaders had visited the office of the DC/DRO to lodge a complaint about delays in notifying results of Jan 15 LG polls and they held a ‘peaceful’ protest.

He submitted that the ransacking and attack was carried out by the Pakistan Peoples Party activists, who also gathered there, but the police did not take action against them and instead booked the PTI leadership.

Court fixes the matter for 28th for confirmation of interim bail or otherwise

The counsel said that the complainant in connivance with PPP leaders had levelled false allegations against the applicants despite the fact that even otherwise the case did not attract the sections of the anti-terror law.

Arguing that other sections of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) were bailable, the counsel pleaded the judge to grant bail to Mr Zaidi, who was willing to surrender, but apprehended his arrest at the hands of the police.

Without touching the merits of the case, the judge granted interim pre-arrest bail to Mr Zaidi subject against a surety of Rs30,000.

The court fixed the matter on Jan 28 for confirmation or otherwise of the interim bail.

A day earlier, the court had also granted interim pre-arrest bail to four other PTI leaders — MNA Ataullah Khan, MPAs Bilal Ghaffar, Saeed Afridi and Shabbir Qureshi — in the same case.

Their bail pleas are also fixed on Jan 28 for confirmation or otherwise.

A case was registered under Sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 324 (attempted murder), 506-B (punishment for criminal intimidation), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees), 380 (theft in dwelling house, etc), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions) of the PPC.

The case has been registered under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2023