LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Tuesday granted pre-arrest bail to a cleric, Maulana Aleemuddin Shakir, in the case pertaining to harassment caused to a woman in Ichhra Bazaar for wearing a shirt with Arabic alphabets printed on it.

The cleric appeared before the court along with his lawyer, who argued that the petitioner wanted to join the police investigation to prove his innocence. However, he said, there was an apprehension of the petitioner’s arrest by police.

He said the petitioner was among those who protected the woman from a charged crowd. He said the police had also hailed the role of the petitioner in the incident.

He asked the court to allow pre-arrest bail to the petitioner as he was ready to furnish surety bonds.

Judge Arshad Javed granted bail to the petitioner restraining the police from arresting him till March 25.

The other day, the court remanded three suspects in police custody in the same case.

The police said suspects Muhammad Nadeem, Adil Sarwar and Altimash Saglain were involved in harassing the woman and inciting people to kill her.

Ichhra police had registered the FIR a week after the incident wherein dozens of charged people had accused a woman of “blasphemy” in Ichhra Bazaar as she was wearing a shirt carrying Arabic calligraphy print. The mob threatened to kill the woman. However, a police team, led by ASP Sheharbano Naqvi, had rescued the woman and shifted her to a police station.

BAIL: An ATC on Tuesday extended the pre-arrest bail of a PTI-Sunni Ittehad Council MNA Zain Qureshi and former federal minister Asad Umar in the Jinnah House attack case.

Mr Qureshi appeared before the court on expiry of his bail period.

Judge Arshad Javed heard the petitions as duty judge and extended their bail till April 20.

The judge also allowed an application filed on behalf of Mr Umar seeking a one-time exemption from personal appearance.

Separately, the judge denied physical remands of SIC MPA Hafiz Farhat Abbas to the Racecourse police in a new case, sending him to jail on judicial remand.

The police presented Abbas before the court for his first remand in a case of attacking police teams and vehicles outside the Zaman Park residence of the PTI founder Imran Khan.

However, the judge turned down the police request and sent the MPA on judicial remand.

The MPA was already on judicial remand in a case of taking out a rally against the alleged rigging in the recent general elections.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2024