KARACHI: An additio­nal district and sessions court on Thursday granted transit bail to lawyer Hassaan Niazi, a nephew of PTI chief Imran Khan, in a case lodged against him at the Nowshera Cantt police station, Khyber Pakhtun­khwa, on the charges of mutiny and sedition.

Granting him interim post-arrest bail against the sum of Rs100,000, the judge told Mr Niazi to surrender before the relevant court within 48 hours. Mr Niazi secured bail after the KP police obtained his custody from Karachi without obtaining a no-objection certificate.

The court also issued notices to the SHO of the Jamshed Quarters police station and the investigating officer to file their respective replies on a contempt application filed by Mr Niazi.

On Wednesday, Judicial Magistrate (East) Sibghatullah discharged Mr Niazi from a case lodged under sections 121, 124-A, 153-A and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Jamshed Quarters police station.

Meanwhile, the Sindh High Court on Thursday dismissed a petition filed by Mr Niazi’s father seeking the quashing of an FIR lodged against the lawyer at the Jamshed Quarters police station.

When the division bench headed by Justice Muhammad Karim Khan Agha took up the matter for hearing, the petitioner’s counsel informed the court that Hassaan Niazi had now been discharged by the trial court, but he had still not been released by the police authorities.

In Lahore, an anti-terrorism court on Thursday granted post-arrest bail to Hassaan Niazi and others in a case of concealing and distorting evidence about the death of a party worker — Ali Bilal alias Zille Shah — in an alleged road accident.

Judge Ijaz Ahmad Buttar allowed the bail petition of Mr Niazi, Raja Shakeel Zaman and others subject to furnishing surety bonds of Rs100,000 each.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2023