KARACHI: The Charsadda (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) police interrogated MNA from South Waziristan Ali Wazir in the central prison here on Thursday in the sixth sedition case lodged against him some two years ago, Dawn learnt on Thursday.

He was shown arrested by the Charsadda police, who obtained permission from judges of Karachi’s two antiterrorism courts (X and XII) on an application moved by Inspector Ghulam Ali of the Parang police station in Charsadda.

In the plea, Inspector Ali pleaded that he should be allowed to arrest and interrogate the MNA in connection with an FIR registered against him under Sections 120 (concealing design to commit offence punishable with imprisonment), 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups, etc), 121 (waging or attempting to wage war or abetting waging of war against Pakistan), 121-A (conspiracy to commit offences punishable by Section 121) and 124-A (sedition) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 5 of the Loud Speaker Act on behalf of the state.

The case was registered on the complaint of SHO of Parang police station Gul Malik Khan for allegedly promoting mutiny and conspiracy against the state by addressing a gathering at the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement rally at the Bhoma Khel Park in Charsadda on March 2, 2020.

The IO stated that MNA Ali Wazir [who is incarcerated in the Karachi Central Prison] was required to be formally arrested and interrogated.

Therefore, he asked the judges of both ATCs, where the South Waziristan lawmaker is already facing trial in sedition cases, to issue a no-objection certificate (NOC) directing the jail superintendent to allow him to arrest and grill the lawmaker.

The judge wrote in their order: “In view of the above, this court has no any objection and PI Ghulam Ali is allowed to re-arrest the accused Ali Wazeer. He is allowed to interrogate and conduct investigation from the accused in said FIR after sun rise and before sun set inside the prison and in the presence of the Senior Superintendent Central Prison Karachi”.

However, the judges made it clear that the custody of the undertrial lawmaker should not be removed from the prison for shifting him to Charsadda until and unless the cases pending before these courts were concluded.

Earlier, the courts had also allowed the Miranshah and the Dera Ismail Khan police to arrest and interrogate the detained MNA Ali Wazir in certain identical cases.

In October, a Karachi antiterrorism court had acquitted the MNA in one case of allegedly promoting mutiny while three identical cases are still pending trial before the ATCs.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2022