BAJAUR: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader and former provincial minister Anwarzeb Khan was released from a jail in Khar area here on Thursday after a local court granted him bail in a case registered against the holding of a workers’ convention.

However, the police arrested his elder son and local PTI senior vice-president, Sikandar Zeb Khan, for allegedly violating Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure by holding the workers’ convention.

Also in the day, former provincial minister and PTI leader Shakeel Khan was arrested in a case registered in Charsadda district after a court granted him bail in the case against the holding of the PTI workers convention in Bajaur.

Mr Anwarzeb, who was arrested along with PTI activist Shakeel Khan of Malakand area on Saturday evening, was freed from the jail in Bajaur district after the senior civil judge accepted his bail plea on condition of furnishing two surety bonds of Rs100,000 each.

Another PTI leader re-arrested after court accepts his bail plea

The police had arrested two in Raghagan area after the PTI held a workers convention at his guesthouse on Dec 9.

Lawyer Mohammad Adil Khan appeared for him and contended that his client was implicated in a concocted case registered on political grounds.

He added that the petitioner didn’t violate any law and was a law-abiding citizen.

As Mr Anwarzeb reached his house in Raghagan area, scores of PTI activists accorded him a warm welcome.

In a video message, the former minister expressed anger over the arrest of his son and declared the police’s act an attempt to force him and his son into quitting the PTI.

He insisted that Bajaur’s deputy commissioner ordered the detention of his son under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance before the latter was sent to a jail in Timergara.

Meanwhile, Mr Shakeel was re-arrested after a court ordered his release by accepting his plea for bail.

He was taken into custody by the Charsadda police in a case registered by them several days ago. They later took him to Charsadda for production in a court.

Tangi judicial magistrate Mohammad Tariq Khan ordered the police to shift PTI leader and former provincial minister Shakeel Khan to jail on 14-day remand, adds our Charsadda correspondent.

Mr Shakeel was named in an FIR registered against him over his alleged derogatory remarks against state institutions during a PTI workers’ convention at the hujra of former MPA Khalid Khan in Charsadda on Nov 29.

Meanwhile, a sessions court in Peshawar granted transit bails to former MNA Gul Dad Khan and former MPA Ajmal Khan, both residents of Bajaur and PTI leaders, in the workers convention case and directed them to approach the relevant court in their district by Dec 16.

Both had approached the court for transit bail insisting they wanted to appear before the relevant court in Bajaur but feared arrest.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2023