PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday granted protective bail to leader of the opposition in the National Assembly Omar Ayub Khan and MNAs Asad Qaiser, Zartaj Gul and Faisal Amin Khan until Oct 10 in a case recently registered against scores of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leaders for allegedly violating standard operating procedures of a public meeting in Islamabad.

Justice Shakeel Ahmad of a single-member bench accepted separate petitions of the four lawmakers, directing them to appear before the relevant court in Islamabad by Oct 10.

Mohsin Farooq, Alam Khan Adenzai, Shahab Shah, Arshad Khan and other lawyers appeared for the petitioners and claimed that the federal government had registered a fabricated case against several PTI leaders, including petitioners, on political grounds.

They added that the FIR was registered by Islamabad’s Sangjani police on Sept 9 under different provisions of the Pakistan Penal Code, Anti-Terrorism Act, and the recently-enacted Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Act, 2024.

Seeks govt reply to pleas about cases registered against them

The counsel said that the petitioners were MNAs and law-abiding citizens.

They added that the petitioner wanted to approach the relevant court in Islamabad but they feared their arrest on their way to the court.

The lawyers said that Mr Omar Ayub was the leader of the opposition and had also served as a federal minister, while Asad Qaiser was a former National assembly speaker and Zartaj Gul a former federal minister.

Meanwhile, a bench consisting of Chief Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Justice Wiqar Ahmad granted protective bail to Omer Ayub, Asad Qaiser and Faisal Amin and stopped federal law-enforcement agencies from arresting those PTI leaders in any case until Oct 7.

The three petitioners sought the court’s orders for law-enforcement agencies to learn about the cases registered against them.

The bench directed the federal government to file response to the petitions of those lawmakers until Oct 3. The counsel requested the bench to order LEAs not to arrest their clients until further orders.

However, the bench wondered how such an order could be issued to the agencies functioning in other provinces.

The chief justice observed that the court could issue directives to a federal LEA but not any agency functioning in other provinces.

The lawyers requested the bench to grant protective bails to the petitioners to enable them to appear before the relevant courts.

The bench observed that it would seek details from the federal government about cases against the petitioners, but as far as the cases registered in other provinces were concerned, the petitioners should approach the relevant high courts.

Mr Ayub said scores of cases were registered against him in Punjab.

The bench observed that it couldn’t overstep its jurisdiction and could only issue directives to the federal agencies.

‘PARLIAMENT ATTACK’ FLAYED: Mr Ayub later told reporters that Sept 9 was the darkest day in the history of the country when unidentified masked men attacked parliament and took away lawmakers.

He said the federal government and establishment were responsible for that incident.

The PTI leader saidthe federal government tried its best to prevent Islamabad’s public meeting on Sept 8 and created hurdles to participants.

Accompanied by Asad Qaiser, he said the PTI condemned the arrest of lawmakers and hoped Speaker of the National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq would act against culpable officials.

He, however, said the PTI lawmakers had grievances against the speaker for not acting against the perpetrators of that illegal act. He also demanded fresh elections in the country.

Mr Qaiser said the PTI leaders approached the high court for transit bail to ensure they attend the assembly session and play their due role in thwarting the tabling of a government bill to benefitting an individual.

He claimed that currently, there was no “constitutional government” in the country.

The PTI leader questioned whether public meetings of other political parties were also held under SOPs. He said a case was unfairly registered against PTI leaders for violating SOPs.

“The MNAs elected with PTI’s support won’t support the government in the house,” he said.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2024