MANSEHRA: The Peshawar High Court’s Abbottabad Circuit Bench on Tuesday ordered Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl leader Mufti Kifayatullah’s release on bail bond of Rs100,000.

“The PHC bench has granted bail to Mr Kifayatullah in all three cases lodged against him by police under various sections of law,” Bilal Khan, counsel for Kifayatullah, told mediapersons here.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Shakeel Ahmad and Justice Ahmad Ali Khan announced the verdict after Kifayatullah’s counsel and additional advocate general concluded their arguments.

The court also ordered Kifayatullah to submit a surety bond of Rs100,000 with the local magistrate that he would not challenge the government’s writ about Covid-19 pandemic.

Asks him to submit bond he would not challenge govt writ

Advocate Bilal Khan told mediapersons that his client Mufti Kifayatullah had raised voice for a respectable burial of those who died of Covid-19. He said the court also ordered his client to abide by orders issued by the government from time to time in connection with Covid-19 pandemic.

The police had arrested the JUI-F leader when he was returning his home in Tarangri village from Mansehra town after leading funeral of his party’s deputy district chief Shah Abdul Aziz, who had died of Covid-19 on April 14.

Mufti Kifayatullah had also refused to be tested for Covid-19 fearing threat to his life at the district jail in Mansehra last week.

26 ARRESTED: Torghar police on Tuesday arrested 26 accused after a local court cancelled their pre-arrest bail in a case wherein 13 people were injured.

District and session judge Jamaluddin Khan cancelled the pre-arrest bail of 20 tribesmen of Bassikhel clan and six tribesmen of the rival Mallah clan.

The Judbah police had booked the 26 accused last week when Bassikhel people had foiled burial of Mallah tribe’s woman at a disputed land in Shagai area of district.

RATION PACKAGES: The district administration gave ration packages to newspaper hawkers here on Tuesday.

Deputy commissioner Aurangzeb Haider gave away the packages to 28 hawkers at his office. Speaking on the occasion, he said newspaper hawkers were also affected by the lockdown implemented in the wake of coronavirus pandemic.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2020