PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court on Friday granted protective bail to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani till Jan 22 and directed police and other law enforcement agencies not to arrest him in any of the cases against him.

A bench consisting of Justice Shakeel Ahmad and Justice Wiqar Ahmad disposed of a petition filed by Mushtaq Ghani, presently in UK, seeking renewal of his passport and protective bail in cases against him.

The bench directed the respondents including police, Federal Investigation Agency, National Accountability Bureau, anti-corruption establishment, etc not to take any adverse action against him.

On the order of the high court, government had already renewed his passport, which was delivered to him in London.

Advocate Ali Azim Afridi appeared for the petitioner and stated that his client was a leader of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, a law abiding citizen and speaker of the provincial assembly.

He stated that he had gone abroad and in the meantime he came to know that he had been charged in a case registered regarding May 9 protests in Abbottabad.

He stated that he was nominated in the said case in Nov with mala fide intentions by the police.

He argued that as per their information the petitioner had not been charged in any other case.

Mr Afridi argued that the petitioner was also a candidate in the forthcoming general elections and he intended to return back to the country. However, he stated that the petitioner apprehended that he would be arrested on his return.

Additional advocate general Danyal Asad Chamkani appeared for the government and stated that earlier the petitioner was granted bail till Dec 27, but he didn’t appeared before the concerned court.

Mr Afridi stated that the petitioner intended to return back but when he had applied for renewal of passport, he came to know that his name was placed in the provisional national identity list (PNIL).

He added that after the court issued an order last month to the federal government, his passport was renewed.

He argued that the right to remain in, enter and move freely throughout Pakistan and to reside and settle in any part thereof, was a fundamentally guaranteed right, subjected to reasonable restrictions imposed by the law.

MURAD SAEED CASE: The bench recuses itself from hearing plea of PTI leader and former federal minister Murad Saeed and referred it to the chief justice for placing the same before another bench.

The bench observed that as both the members had also served as presiding officers of election appellate tribunals, therefore, it won’t be appropriate for them to hear this matter.

The nomination papers of Murad Saeed, who is presently in hiding, were rejected by the concerned returning officer for NA-4 Swat.

An election appellate tribunal in Swat had also rejected his appeal and had uphold his disqualification on the ground that he had been absconding.

He has now challenged both the orders of the returning officer and the tribunal before the high court requesting to set aside the said orders and declare him qualified for the polls.

His counsel Mohammad Inam Yousafzai stated that nomination papers of a candidate could not be rejected on the ground of his absconding from law as that ground had not been mentioned in Article 62 and 63 of the Constitution of Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2024