KARACHI, June 7: The Sindh High Court ordered on Saturday immediate release of PPP (Shaheed Bhutto) provincial president Ali Mohammad Sonara.

A division bench, comprising Justices Sabihuddin Ahmed and S. Ali Aslam Jafri, also allowed a request by petitioner Sakina Begum, wife of the detenu, to meet him on his release from the Central Prison, Karachi. The request was made in view of the apprehension of Sonara’s rearrest in some case or by a fresh order issued under MPO.

The detenu was put behind bars on Sept 17, 1996, and had not been freed since then despite his acquittal or grant of bail in 13 criminal cases he was tried in.

He was finally rearrested from outside the prison on May 14 last in a 1990 bomb blast case, in which he was not named an accused.

He was interrogated at length for his “indirect involvement” in the case, but no evidence could be brought on record to connect him with the commission of the offence.

He was freed in the case on May 17, but immediately rearrested under the MPO to prevent him from acting in a manner prejudicial to public safety. He was dubbed a “hardened criminal likely to disrupt public peace” in the May 17 order.

The bench admonished the police for making “a mockery of itself” by keeping people under arrest on flimsy grounds. It noted that no specific ground was mentioned in the preventive detention order.

He was earlier arrested in a “blind FIR” pertaining to 1990. What was the investigation agencies doing from 1990 to May 14, when they suddenly thought of arresting a person not named in the FIR? it asked. The bench observed that only “a clear and present” threat to public peace and tranquillity could justify preventive detention. The order for Sonara’s detention mentioned no specific ground, it pointed out.