KARACHI: The Sindh High Court restrained police on Saturday from arresting estranged PPP leader Dr Zulfikar Mirza till Monday or registering new cases against him without the court’s permission and ordered Rangers to escort him and his wife back to their residence.

A division bench issued orders to police to escort the former provincial minister on a fresh application filed by him after an abortive bid to arrest him, but the provincial and city police chiefs could not be reached by the SHC officials despite repeated attempts.

According to official sources, the SHC registrar finally contacted Rangers for compliance with the court’s order and Zulfikar Mirza and his wife Dr Fahmida Mirza were escorted to their residence by paramilitary troops.

Read: Protective bail of Dr Mirza, 72 associates extended in Badin

Mr Mirza had reached the SHC along with Advocate Jawaid Mir and filed the application, stating that he had made a second attempt to obtain bail from an anti-terrorism court but on both occasions the ATC located adjacent to the SHC and all the streets leading to the courts had been surrounded by heavy police contingents.

Before converting the application into a constitutional petition, the SHC sought a report from its registrar about the police deployment.

The registrar reported that not only the ATC but the main gate of the SHC was also blocked by police.

The division bench headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah said the encirclement of the SHC and ATC buildings “not only appears to be an attempt to obstruct the course of justice, but also lowering the process and dignity of this court”. “Let the chief secretary, home secretary, IGP, Additional IGP Karachi and DIG South explain their position.”

The court said no more FIR should be lodged against Mr Mirza by the provincial government without its permission.

The bench also extended for five days protective bail granted to Mr Mirza in a case registered by Darakhshan police, “enabling him to approach the concerned court and to avail remedy in accordance with law”.

Seeking court orders for his protection, Mr Mirza alleged that the police personnel posted in civil dress with covered faces were under instructions to kill him because of political enmity.

He said several false cases had been lodged against him so that he could be arrested or killed in a fake encounter.

“In the peculiar circumstances and keeping in view that the petitioner had remained home minister of this province and his wife speaker of the National Assembly for such a long time and now all of a sudden a number of terrorism cases are being registered against him and that the entire police force appears to have the only task of arresting the petitioner speak volumes.”

The bench restrained provincial authorities from arresting Zulfikar Mirza and ordered the provincial and city police chiefs and the Rangers DG to provide him the required security “in order to facilitate his appearance before this court on Monday at 11am”.

Earlier, an ATC turned down an application of Mr Mirza seeking exemption from appearance and pre-arrest bail in a fresh case.

Mr Mirza is facing more than 12 cases in Karachi and Badin, along with his associates, for allegedly causing terror, threatening policemen and obstructing them from performing their duty at Darakhshan police station on May 16 when he went there to record his statement in three cases lodged in Badin earlier this month.

ATC-III judge Saleem Raza Baloch dismissing his application said the presence of an applicant was necessary to entertain his bail application in accordance with the Criminal Procedure Code.

The court handed over three suspects in the same case to police on physical remand till May 27. The men had been picked up during a raid on the home of Mr Mirza in DHA on Friday.

Police had blocked the roads leading to the ATCs, and sealed the entry and exit points. Heavy contingents of police, including masked commandos and anti-riot personnel, were deployed in and around the ATCs before Mr Mirza’s expected arrival.

A similar situation had been witnessed when the former minister turned up before an ATC on May 9 and May 19.

Another ATC extended the physical remand of six associates of Mr Mirza in three other cases till June 1.

Guards, journalists beaten up

Masked and armed policemen in civvies beat Mr Mirza’s guards inside the SHC building and then turned to journalists covering the violent episode.

They smashed parked vehicles and snatched cameras from journalists.

TV channels showed the masked and armed policemen beating unknown persons and then putting them into police vehicles before speeding away. The journalists were also manhandled while covering these incidents.

South Karachi SSP Chaudhry Asad Ali confirmed that masked policemen were associated with the Sindh police’s Special Security Unit (SSU) but it was not explained why the commandos had been called.

At least two cameramen associated with ARY News and Mehran TV were injured and taken to a hospital. The Karachi Press Club and Karachi Union of Journalists condemned the ‘police brutality’ against journalists.

There was no official announcement about the number of people arrested from the SHC but MNA Fahmida Mirza claimed that 17 of her security guards had been taken away by police.

“We faced the toughest day of our life today,” she told a press conference in the evening at her residence. “The ATC and Sindh High Court buildings were under siege and during the police brutality my 17 security guards were picked up and moved to an unknown location. We are alive and safe only due to presence of media, otherwise anything worst could have happened there.”

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2015

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