KARACHI: A day after their arrest in a rioting case, a judicial magistrate granted bail to 12 activists of the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, including the president and secretary of its city chapter, on Saturday.

Police had on Friday arrested the activists near Sohrab Goth where they gathered to proceed to Swabi and registered a criminal case against them.

On Saturday, the investigating officer of the case produced PTI-Karachi president Raja Azhar, secretary Arsalan Khalid, Dr Masroor Sial, Rana Azam, Khurram Saeed, Farooq Ahmed, Sher Azam, Imran Mirza, Syed Ahmed Sohail, Afsar Ali, Muhammad Saeed and Syed Abdul Rahman before the court.

The prosecution stated that the held suspects, along with their 15 absconding accomplices, had created a law and order situation by staging a protest that also caused hardship for public. The suspects also attacked the police when they attempted to disperse them.

Lawyers belonging to the PTI’s Insaf Lawyers Forum, including Zahooruddin Meshed and Barrister Ali Tahir, represented the held workers and argued that they had gathered at Sohrab Goth to peacefully leave for Swabi, but police had subjected them to baton charge and torture and framed them in the present case.

They submitted that all the offences mentioned in the FIR were bailable and asked the court to discharge them or set free on bail.

After hearing both sides, a judicial magistrate (Malir) granted the suspects bail against a surety bond of Rs5,000 each and directed the IO to file the investigation report.

A counsel for the suspects said that the court set them free on personal bonds due to the public holiday and directed them to furnish the surety on Monday.

A case was registered against the suspects under Sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting while being armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of ASI Samar Abbas.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2024