KARACHI: An antiterrorism court on Thursday granted interim pre-arrest bail to four Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf lawmakers and as many workers booked for allegedly attacking and ransacking the office of the deputy commissioner-Keamari over a delay in announcement of the result on some union committees.

PTI MNA Ataullah Khan, MPAs Bilal Ghaffar, Saeed Afridi and Shabbir Qureshi moved applications before the administrative judge of the ATC seeking pre-arrest bail to avoid their arrest in the present case.

Their counsel, Zahoor Mehsood and Farhan Sardar, argued they the PTI leaders had visited the DC/DRO’s office to lodge a complaint about delays in notifying results of Jan 15 LG polls and they held a “peaceful” protest.

They alleged that the ransacking and attack was carried out by the Pakistan Peoples Party activists, but the police did not take action against them and instead booked the PTI leaders.

The counsel said that the complainant in connivance with PPP leaders had leveled false allegations against the applicants despite the fact that even otherwise the case did not attract the sections of the anti-terror law.

Arguing that other sections of the Pakistan Penal Code were bailable, the counsel pleaded the judge to grant bail to the applicants, who were willing to surrender, but apprehended their arrest at the hands of the police.

Without touching the merits of the case, the judge granted interim pre-arrest bail to 15 applicant subject to furnishing a surety of Rs30,000 each.

The judge fixed the matter on Jan 28 for confirmation or otherwise of the interim bail.

Advocate Mehsood said PTI Sindh president Ali Haider Zaidi would apply for bail on Friday (today).

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2023