An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi granted bail to former Malir SSP Rao Anwar on Friday in the case against him for filing a fake first information report (FIR) against Naqeebullah Mehsud.

This is the second case in which Anwar was granted bail. Earlier, on July 10, the tainted cop had been granted bail in the case concerning the extrajudicial killing of Waziristan native Mehsud and three others in Karachi.

Anwar had filed an FIR against Mehsud and three others — all killed in a staged encounter — for possession of explosives and illegal weapons. A joint investigation team (JIT) had later found that the four had been falsely implicated, with the court later ruling that Mehsud had no extremist tendencies.

Two FIRs were then filed against Anwar — one by the police and other by Mehsud's father — for falsely implicating Mehsud.

The court today ordered Anwar to be released on bail, asking him to submit a surety bond worth Rs1 million.

Salahuddin Panhwar, the counsel for Mehsud's father, said that they had already informed the court that they will not be participating in the case's proceedings until the matter is pending in the Sindh High Court (SHC).

He also vowed to challenge what he termed the one-sided verdict of the ATC.

He said that he had no confidence in the ATC as Anwar was being provided full protocol and the court had paid no heed to their repeated protests.

"Rao Anwar has not been treated as an accused for even a single day," Panhwar complained.

Naqeebullah case

Naqeebullah Mehsud was among four people killed in an encounter on January 13. While SSP Anwar had claimed that all four of the men killed, allegedly on his orders, belonged to the terrorist outfit Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), social media had erupted in protest against Mehsud's killing after it was found that he was an aspiring model.

The tainted police officer had gone into hiding soon after demands for his arrest in the Naqeebullah murder case had gained traction, especially on the back of protests by the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM).

A police JIT had then found the encounter was staged.

Anwar had then resurfaced in a dramatic manner at the Supreme Court, after repeated pleas from the chief justice, from where he was subsequently arrested.

Soon after his arrest, his house in Malir Cantonment was declared a sub-jail. He had later moved an application for provision of better class facilities in the sub-jail. The court had accepted Anwar's application for better facilities, including an exemption from being handcuffed.