PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday granted transit bail to former MNA and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Shandana Gulzar until Feb 25 in a sedition case registered against her in Islamabad.

Justice Syed Arshad Ali of a single-member bench directed the former lawmaker to produce two surety bonds of Rs100,000 each and appear before the relevant court in Islamabad.

The FIR against the petitioner was registered at Islamabad’s Women Police Station on Jan 31 on the complaint of magistrate Abdul Hadi after she participated in a TV talk show.

The case was registered under the Pakistan Penal Code’s Section 124-A (sedition), Section 153-A (promoting enmity in ethnic groups) and Section 505 (statements conducing to public mischief).

Senior lawyer Mohammad Muazzam Butt appeared for the petitioner and said his client was implicated in a concocted case to victimise her because of her political affiliation with the PTI.

He said the registration of that case was a violation of the Constitution as well as laws.

The lawyer requested the court to grant transit or protective bail to the petitioner to enable her to travel to Islamabad to pursue the case.

Referring to different parts of the interview of Ms Gulzar, complainant Abdul Hadi alleged that the purpose of the interview was to create unrest, fear and chaos among the people and to create hatred among the people on ethnic and provincial and regional basis.

He added that the former MNA tried to create prejudice on provincial grounds by attaching terrorism to different provinces, political parties and institutions.

The complainant said Ms Gulzar also wanted to damage peace and tranquility in the country.

After attending the hearing, Ms Gulzar told reporters that she and other PTI leaders were not “scared of approaching courts and dealing with issues in a legal manner.”

She said the “cypher” about the US conspiracy against Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government should be made public to prove the “regime change” conspiracy.

The former MNA said several police cases had been registered against the PTI leaders as the government didn’t want them to “raise questions” about the killing of over 100 innocent people in Peshawar city and other security issues.

She said the Constitution guaranteed them freedom of expression and if asking questions was not permissible, then the Constitution should be torn apart.

Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2023