October 9, 2002	Wednesday	Sha’aban 2, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 8: The chairperson of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Benazir Bhutto, will return soon to contest the by- elections, the counsel of Ms Bhutto, Dr Babar Awan, told Dawn here on Tuesday.

He said the lawyers wing of the PPP had prepared a comprehensive plan to plead her case in the court of law.

“The PPP chairperson can plead her case without giving her arrest, if she is granted ‘protective bail’ before arrest.”

The facility of protective bail has been given many times in the past, he added.

Dr Babar Awan, who is a PPP candidate for NA-48, said that Ms Bhutto had been convicted not for any criminal charge but merely on the pretext of absence from the process of court.

“We have a complete legal and constitutional plan with us to explore all avenues and she can come to Pakistan without her arrest,” he said.

Quoting a famous case of a staffer of the BBC, Mark Tully, he said the BBC correspondent was facing a case of high treason in Pakistan.

The journalist was in New Delhi when the case was registered against him, however, he applied for protective bail before supreme court of Pakistan and the apex court gave him a five-day time to approach the court through Wahga Border, he added.

The PPP candidate said that in view of this precedent, the PPP chairperson couldn’t be deprived of this constitutional right which was given to an alien.

Mr Awan said this judgment was again followed by Justice Khalilur Rehman in 1993 and a secretary of the Punjab provincial assembly was granted protective bail without appearing in the court.

Similarly, in 1974, Abdul Hamid Khan Jatoi, was granted protective bail by the Sindh-Balochistan High Court, he added.

“The first example of protective bail was set by the supreme court in 1972 in the famous case of Zahoor Elahi when he was allowed to have the facility of ‘Omni Bus Bail Order’.”

He said according to this principal of law, the accused defendant could not be arrested in all cases which were pending or yet to be registered against the accused defendant.