MANSEHRA: The Abbottabad Circuit Bench of Peshawar High Court ordered the release of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl leader Mufti Kifayatullah on bail in a high treason case on Friday.

Justice Shakeel Ahmad asked Kifayatullah to produce Rs0.5 million surety bonds to secure his release.

Bilal Khan, lawyer for Kifayatullah, told reporters here that the jail administration was likely to free his client on Monday after the completion of legal formalities.

He said the court would announce the schedule for next hearing afterward.

Lawyers Mohammad Bilal Khan, Kamran Murtaz and Ahmad Ali Shah appeared before the court for the JUI-F leader and additional advocate general Raja Zubair and assistant advocate general Sardar Mohammad Asif for the state.

The Mansehra police had arrested Mr Kifayatullah on April 14, 2021, after registering an FIR against him under sections 503, 505, 506 and 21-A, 124-A, 131-A and 153-A of PPC.

Lawyer Bilal Khan said his client Mufti Kifaytullah had first moved the additional district and sessions judge, Mansehra,

for his bail but withdrew his petition when the Counter-Terrorism Department incorporated the high treason sections of law in the FIR.

The federal cabinet in one of its meetings held with Prime Minister Imran Khan in the chair had decided about the arrest of Mufti Kifayatullah under treason charges for speaking against the state’s institutions at a private TV channel talk show.

Mr Kifayatullah had gone underground after FIR was registered against him, but the police arrested him when he came out of hiding.

He had also gone on hunger strike last week after jail authorities in Haripur didn’t allow him to be hospitalised for his eyes’ treatment.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2021