LAHORE: A Lahore High Court two-judge bench on Monday extended post-arrest bail to Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) patron-in-chief Pir Afzal Qadri in a case of leading violent protests against acquittal of Christian woman Aasia Bibi.

The court had granted temporary bail to Qadri on May 14 last on medical grounds.

During the Monday’s hearing, Mr Qadri appeared before the bench along with a legal team and also presented medical reports to explain his health condition.

Advocate Arif Awan on behalf of the TLP leader asked the court to confirm the bail owing to bad health of his client. He said the petitioner had already expressed repentance on his speeches by submitting affidavits to the court.

The bench adjourned hearing till Aug 3 and directed the petitioner’s counsel to place all medical reports on record through a separate civil miscellaneous application. The bench also extended the bail of the petitioner till next date of hearing.

Civil Lines police had registered the FIR under section 290/291/353/427/186/188 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), section 6 of Sound System Punjab Ordinance 2015 and section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 against the TLP leaders after they led violent protests against the acquittal of Christian woman Aasia Bibi of blasphemy charge.

In this case the bench had also granted post-arrest bail to TLP chief Maulana Khadim Ali Rizvi on merit.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2019