KARACHI, Dec 17: Justice Khwaja Naveed Ahmed granted bail to an associate of the late Mir Murtaza Bhutto who has been arrested twice during the last 11 years for his alleged involvement in the latter’s assassination.

On behalf of applicant Dr Mazhar Memon, Advocate Noor Naz Agha submitted that he was accompanying Mir Murtaza as a member of his party, the Pakistan People’s Party (Shaheed Bhutto), when he came under attack near his Clifton residence on Sept 20, 1996. He was not named in the FIR but was arrested twice for his alleged involvement in the attack.

Granting the bail plea, the court ordered that the applicant be released on bail in the sum of Rs50,000.

The candidates, whose nomination papers to contest the general elections were rejected by the election commission and then appeals against returning officers were dismissed by the election tribunal, have moved writ petitions against the election tribunal decisions. Dr Zulfiqar Mirza (NA-225, Badin), Pir Mazharul Haq (PS-74, Dadu), Saeed Ghani (NA-250, Karachi South), Abdus Salam Thaheem (PS-83, Shahdadpur), Zulfiqar and Qurban Baihan (Nawabshah) and Wahid Bukhsh Bhaiyo (NA-230, Shikarpur) have moved writ petitions which would be heard by a three-member bench of Sindh High Court comprising Chief Justice Mohammad Afzal Soomro, Justice Mrs Qaiser Iqbal and Justice Mahmood Alam Rizvi.