KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday directed police to file comments on a pre-arrest bail petition of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s mayor-nominee Waseem Akhtar in two cases registered against him and other party leaders under antiterrorism laws for listening to Altaf Hussain’s speech criticising the military establishment.

Earlier, MQM leaders Rauf Siddiqui, a former home minister, and Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, a former federal minister, were given protective bail by the SHC in identical cases.

A division bench directed the respondent authorities to file their respective comments and put off the hearing to Jan 11.

The MQM leader had moved the court for protective bail in the cases registered at the Sohrab Goth and Site police stations under Sections 120-A-B, 121, 122, 123-A, 109/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code, Section 25-B of the Telegraph Act read with Section 6/7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Apprehending his arrest, the MQM leader requested the court to grant him protective bail to enable him to surrender before the trial court and face charges against him.

The FIRs against the MQM chief and other party leaders were lodged for Altaf Hussain’s slanderous remarks about the military establishment and other national security agencies in his speech.

In his speech, Mr Hussain had accused the paramilitary forces of torturing and killing his party workers.

Rangers’ powers case

Meanwhile, the high court directed Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, to file comments in a constitutional petition against the provincial assembly’s resolution curtailing special powers of the paramilitary troops.

A two-judge bench, headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar, also directed the federal and provincial government law officers to assist the court on the matter and put off the hearing to Jan 13.

The petition challenging the resolution was filed by a lawyer and civil rights campaigner, Advocate Maulvi Iqbal Haider, who impleaded the federal and provincial governments as respondents.

On Dec 16, the Sindh Assembly passed the resolution extending policing powers to the paramilitary troops along with certain conditions. The Sindh government moved to the federal government the summary of curtailing the Rangers powers and subjecting them to chief minister’s approval in certain cases. But the federal government rejected the summary and restored all previous powers to the Rangers in Sindh for 60 days.

During a previous hearing, the petitioner on a court order also presented a copy of the assembly resolution that bounds the Rangers to seek government approval before raiding its institutions.

According to the petitioner, the Rangers have restored peace to the city due to the special powers given by the Sindh government, while only terrorists and criminals would be beneficiary of the Rangers limited powers. He said the assembly resolution allowed the Rangers to take action against targeted killings, extortion activities, kidnapping and sectarian killings only.

The petitioner informed the court that the paramilitary force according to the resolution could not detain any suspect who was not directly involved in terrorism without government’s permission.

On Tuesday, the court asked the federal law officer if the Rangers’ powers were restored.

The petitioner confronted him when the law officer replied in affirmative saying the notification restoring the Rangers’ power was not being implemented in letter and spirit.

The bench directed the Rangers to file comments on the matter and put off the hearing to Jan 13.

Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2016