NAWABSHAH: Former federal minister and a key leader of the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), Ghulam Murtaza Khan Jatoi, who heads the National Peoples Party (NPP), was sent to jail by the Naushahro Feroze Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in a murder case on Tuesday.

He was arrested from outside the district and sessions court, where he had come a day earlier to seek an interim bail in some other case.

The Naushahro Feroze police had claimed that he was arrested because the district’s ATC had also issued non-bailable warrants for against him.

He was escorted to the B-Section police station in Nawabshah amid tight security soon after his arrest.

Police earn ATC judge’s ire for keeping the politician in handcuffs

On Tuesday, Jatoi wearing handcuffs was produced before the Naushahro Feroze ATC judge, who admonished the police and ordered removal of the handcuffs.

The judge, however, granted Jatoi’s two-day judicial remand.

Mr Jatoi’s counsel Advocate Abdullah Khan Korai and Gulzar Almani informed the media that two more cases were registered against their client at different police stations of Larkana.

While the senior politician was being taken out of Nawabshah’s B-Section police station, a group of journalists came close to the mobile van carrying him. However, the police kept them at bay to prevent them from interacting with Jatoi. The journalists protested over the treatment.

In Sakrand, local leaders and workers of the Sindh United Party took out a rally and held a noisy demonstration against Jatoi’s arrest.

They described his and several other opposition leaders’ arrest as political victimisation by the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party.

Sindh Home Minister Zia Ul Hassan Lanjar on Tuesday clarified that Jatoi’s arrest was made in compliance of a court order.

In a statement, he recalled that a murder case was registered against Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi during the caretaker government’s period. He said that the case pertained to the murder of an innocent individual, Bilawal, in Naushahro Feroze district and the victim’s family had nominated Jatoi as one of the accused in the FIR.

Lanjar said that police did not take any action against Jatoi until the ATC revoked the bail earlier granted to him.

The minister said that those portraying Jatoi’s arrest as an act of political revenge were merely attempting to mislead people.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2025