PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Friday granted protective bail to central information secretary of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Sheikh Waqas Akram until Dec 5 and directed law-enforcement agencies not to arrest him in cases against him.

A bench comprising Justice Shakeel Ahmad and Justice Syed Arshad Ali directed the federal government to provide details of cases registered against him in Islamabad and by the federal law-enforcement agencies in the country.

The bench also directed Mr Waqas to approach the relevant high courts for seeking information about cases registered in other provinces.

Mr Waqas has filed a review petition seeking directives of the court for the government to provide details of cases registered against him.

Asks govt to produce details of cases against him

Advocates Alam Khan Adenzai and Bashir Wazir appeared for the petitioner and stated that their client was the central leader of PTI and also an elected MNA.

They said that like other leaders of the party the federal and Punjab government had registered concocted cases against him.

The lawyers added that the said government had not been providing details of cases against him.

When asked by the bench about the sought-after relief, they said that a petition was earlier filed by the petitioner wherein the court had granted him protective bail till Nov 14.

The counsel, however, said that the court had not issued any directives about provision of information about his cases.

They said that the petitioner had filed the review petition for getting information about his cases.

The counsel also requested the court to grant him protective bail so that he could approach the relevant courts.

Meanwhile, Mr Akram urged civil society members, students, traders, youth to fully participate in the PTI’s Nov 24 protest saying it is aimed at having justice in the country.

He told reporters on the premises of the Peshawar High Court that upholding the rule of law was necessary, with theparty’s struggle meant for it.

The PTI leader claimed that the people had voted for the party in the general elections and their mandate should be returned to it.

He said that a large number of their workers had been imprisoned.

Mr Akram said that this protest was not only of the PTI but rather for the supremacy of the Constitution in the country.

He believed that the people had to come out as the desired objectives could not be achieved only by protest of a single party.

The PTI leader said that in the party’s previous protest, the workers showed courage and faced teargas shelling and baton-charge for 35 hours, but reached Islamabad’s D-Chowk.

He said the party had convened a meeting in Peshawar on Friday in which central and provincial leaders would show up including Barrister Gohar Ali, Barrister Salman Akram Raja and others.

Mr Akram said that as the party’s lawmakers from Punjab couldn’t hold a meeting there, they couldn’t gather at a single place due to which the meeting was arranged in Peshawar.

He denied that Imran Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi would chairthe meeting, saying she doesn’t holdany party office.

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2024