KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Friday granted bail to interned provincial president of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Haleem Adil Sheikh in a case pertaining to fraud and criminal intimidation.

The PTI leader, who was taken into custody on Aug 30 outside the Sindh High Court, had moved a bail application through his lawyer.

After hearing arguments from the lawyers representing the applicant and complainant as well as the prosecutor, Judicial Magistrate-XI Ahmed Ali granted him bail against a surety bond of Rs100,000.

However, the PTI leader would remain behind bars as Advocate Rahman Mahesar told Dawn he was facing six more cases mostly related to May 9 riots.

On Aug 28, the Memon Goth police booked him in the present case registered on the compliant of property dealer Mohammad Amanullah.

According to the FIR, the PTI leader had allegedly asked the complainant to sign an agreement with his brother Azeem Adil Shaikh regarding a housing scheme. The complainant said he signed the agreement in November 2019 and paid an amount of Rs60 million for around 400 plots in the scheme. Later, the complainant came to know that there was no housing scheme and actually Azeem had committed a fraud, it added.

The FIR stated that on Aug 28, Azeem Adil had called the complainant at his farmhouse located in Memon Goth, where the applicant and his brothers had threatened him at gunpoint of dire consequences.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2023