PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday directed the federal and provincial governments to inform it about the cases registered against MPA-elect and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s nominee for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister’s office Ali Amin Gandapur.

It also stopped the police from arresting the PTI leader in any case.

While issuing notices to the federal and provincial governments for details of cases against Mr Gandapur, a bench consisting of Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Justice Wiqar Ahmad fixed March 19 for the next hearing into the petition of the CM hopeful.

The petitioner has sought directives of the court for the governments to provide him with details of cases registered and inquiries being conducted against him.

Advocate Shah Faisal Uthmankehl appeared for Mr Gandapur and said his client, who was elected both MNA and MPA from Dera Ismail Khan in the Feb 8 polls, was a law-abiding citizen.

Seeks details of cases registered against PTI nominee for CM

He said that the petitioner, a central leader of the PTI, was nominated by the party for the slot of KP chief minister.

The lawyer said that scores of cases had been registered against the petitioner in different parts of the country, including Punjab.

He added that while the petitioner was aware of some cases in which he was granted protective bail by the high court, there might be several other cases about which he had not been provided any information by the government.

The counsel feared that the petitioner might be arrested in any new case as personnel of the Punjab police had reportedly been roaming around in Peshawar.

The bench wondered how the Punjab police could arrest a person here, as there was a set procedure for that purpose. It observed that unless the required mechanism was followed, the Punjab police couldn’t arrest anyone here.

The counsel contended that under Article 19-A of the Constitution, which guaranteed people’s access to information, it was the right of the petitioner to get information about the cases registered against him or any inquiry started against him by any of the law-enforcement agencies.

On Feb 15, the high court’s Dera Ismail Khan bench granted transit bail to Mr Gandapur in 26 cases registered against him in several police stations, mostly in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, and Gujranwala.

It fixed different dates in March for the petitioner to approach the relevant courts in those cases.

TRANSIT BAIL: The bench granted transit bail to MNA-elect and former federal minister Sheikh Waqas Akram until March 18, directing him to approach the relevant high court over criminal cases by then.

The petitioner, who has been elected from NA-109 Jhang as a PTI-backed independent candidate, moved the court to for the provision of information to him by the federal and provincial governments about cases registered against him.

The bench observed that the petitioner had to approach the relevant high court to seek details of cases registered in Punjab and Islamabad,.

The petitioner’s counsel said a day ago, the high court had granted transit bail to the petitioner for 20 days in two cases registered in Punjab.

He said the petitioner wanted to surrender to the relevant courts, but he feared that he might be arrested in any undeclared cases.

The lawyer requested the bench to restrain law-enforcement agencies from arresting his client in any case to enable him to approach the relevant courts.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2024