KARACHI: South Waziristan MNA Ali Wazir was granted bail in the fourth case pertaining to ‘sedition’ by an anti-terrorism court on Tuesday.

However, the lawmaker, who is incarcerated in Karachi central prison since Dec 31, 2020, could not be released since he could not immediately arrange the surety amount of Rs1.9 million in all the four cases lodged in Karachi, his counsel Qadir Khan told Dawn.

On Tuesday, the ATC-XII judge, who was conducting the trial in the judicial complex inside the central prison, pronounced his verdict which was reserved after hearing arguments from both sides.

The judge granted post-arrest bail to the MNA against a surety of Rs100,000 in the case lodged with Karachi’s Boat Basin police station for allegedly delivering a speech inciting the pubic against state institutions, defaming them and committing sedition in Boat Basin in 2018.

Advocate Khan said Mr Wazir has already been granted post-arrest bail in three other sedition cases registered with the Karachi’s Sohrab Goth and Shah Latif police stations. So, the total surety amount comes to Rs1.9 million.

“Therefore, it might take two or three days to arrange the surety amount. Until then, Ali Wazir will have to stay in the prison,” he added.

In November 2021, the Supreme Court had granted bail to Mr Wazir in one case lodged against him along with PTM chief Manzoor Pashteen and other leaders for delivering allegedly incendiary speeches at a public meeting at Sohrab Goth in Karachi.

Later, the Sindh High Court granted him bail in another bail in a second identical case lodged with the Sohrab Goth police station.

However, the Karachi police booked him in the third case lodged with the Shah Latif Town police station against the PTM leaders over alleged hate speech against state institutions.

After the trial court granted bail to Mr Wazir in the third case, the police filed a challan against him in the fourth case registered with the PS Boat Basin in May, 2018.

Mr Khan contended that there was no audio or video evidence available with the prosecution, which were a must in order to prove allegations in such cases.

He said that Mr Wazir had held a meeting inside a Boat Basin flat for preparations of a public meeting, where no speech had been delivered.

On the other hand, the state prosecutor opposed the bail plea, arguing that there was sufficient evidence available on record to prove the charge against the applicant, who was not entitled to the concession of post-arrest bail at the present stage of the case.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2022