KARACHI: A sessions court granted bail to former Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Saleem Shahzad on Friday in an around 25-year-old case.

The suspect through his lawyer moved a bail application and after hearing arguments from both sides, the additional district and sessions judge (East) allowed the bail against a surety bond of Rs500,000. The judge also sought a report from the jail superintendent for not providing medical treatment to the applicant despite a court order.

The former MQM leader was arrested shortly after he landed at the Karachi airport from Dubai on Feb 6 and sent to prison on the following day in a case pertaining to providing shelter and treatment to alleged terrorists at Dr Asim Hussain’s hospital.

Later the court granted him bail.

But he was not set free since police had also shown him arrested in four other cases lodged in the early ’90s and submitted that he was a proclaimed offender in the cases registered at Malir and Landhi police stations pertaining to kidnapping, wrongful confinement, criminal intimidation and rioting.

The bail applications of Saleem Shahzad in the remaining three cases are also pending before the sessions courts.

Militants convicted

Another sessions court sentenced on Friday two suspected militants to a collective sentence of 14 years in attempted murder and illicit weapons cases.

Qari Saif and Ikram, said to be associated with the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, were found guilty of attacking a police party to avoid their arrest and carrying unlicensed weapons.

An additional district and sessions judge (South), who conducted the trial inside the central prison, handed down seven years’ imprisonment for the offence of attempted murder, five years in illicit weapons and two years for deterring police from discharging their official duty.

The court also imposed fines, but ruled that all the sentences would run concurrently.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2017