LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Friday granted pre-arrest bail to Pashtun student Kamil Khan in a sedition case registered against him for participating in a student solidarity march.

Advocates Asad Jamal and Ramis Sohail represented the petitioner before the court of Justice Anwarul Haq Pannun.

At the outset, the counsel relied on the rule of consistency and argued that the petitioner was innocent and had no nexus with the allegations provided in the FIR.

Advocate Jamal submitted that the petitioner was a student of M.Phil at the Government College University, Lahore, and was due to appear in viva voce to defend his thesis for the degree programme in history.

He said it was apprehended if the petitioner were to be arrested and detained, it would lead to an unjust waste of his academic year and life. He asked the court to allow pre-arrest bail to the petitioner.

After hearing the arguments, the judge extended bail to the petitioner and issued notices to the police for March 31.

Earlier, the petitioner was denied pre-arrest bail by a sessions court while other suspects in the same case namely Ammar Ali Jan, Farooq Tariq and Muhammad Shabbir were already allowed bail by the same court.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2020