PESHAWAR, Dec 23: Lawyers pursuing the cases of former chief minister Aftab Sherpao have been chalking out their strategy for dealing with the situation emerging out of his possible arrest on his return from London early next month.

“We will definitely file bail petitions for his release before the concerned courts, if Sherpao is arrested,” said Advocate Zafar Abbas Zaidi, one of his lawyers.

Referring to the three-year sentence Mr Sherpao was awarded in absentia and arrest warrants issued against him in other cases, Mr Zaidi said that PPP leader would surrender to the government on his return.

Mr Zaidi said that appeal against Mr Sherpao’s conviction had been pending before the high court. He said they would file application for suspension of the sentence after Mr Sherpao was taken into custody.

There are six cases that pertain to Mr Sherpao one way or another. He was convicted with a former director-general of the Peshawar Development Authority, Syed Zahir Shah, in the Hayatabad plot scandal, and they both were fined Rs1 million each by an accountability court. However, both of them were acquitted by the high court and now an appeal of National Accountability Bureau against the acquittal had been pending before the Supreme Court.

Mr Sherpao was sentenced to three years imprisonment by an accountability court last year under the NAB Ordinance 1999.