PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court on Wednesday extended protective bail to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur to April 15 and directed law enforcement agencies not to arrest him in any of the cases against him.

A bench consisting of Justice Sahibzada Asadullah and Justice Sabitullah Khan was informed by an assistant attorney general that so far 65 cases had been registered against Mr Gandapur in Islamabad and Punjab.

DAG Malik Danyal informed the bench that 33 of the cases against Mr Gandapur had been registered in Punjab and 32 in Islamabad. The bench directed him to submit a detailed report.

PHC had initially granted protective bail to Mr Gandapur on Oct 22 till Nov 14, 2024, over a petition filed by him, seeking directives of court for federal government for provision of details about the cases registered against him by federal and Punjab governments. Subsequently, his bail was extended from time to time.

65 cases have been registered against him in Islamabad and Punjab

Mr Gandapur appeared along with his counsel Alam Khan Adenzai whereas the KP advocate general, Shah Faisal Uthmankhel, appeared for provincial government.

The deputy attorney general, Malik Danyal, appeared for federal government whereas National Accountability Bureau was represented by its prosecutor Hashmat Jehangir.

The NAB’s prosecutor said that there was a single inquiry pending against Mr Gandapur regarding his assets. Interestingly, petitioner’s counsel Alam Khan requested the bench to also seek a report from the KP government about registration of any case against him in the province.

He stated that there was possibility that any case, so far not in the knowledge of the petitioner, had been registered in the province. He added that recently they came to know that two cases were registered against Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf founder Imran Khan in Malakand.

The bench observed that the counsel had been adopting a very weak position as the petitioner was having government in the province. The bench directed the advocate general to submit a report in that regard.

Alam Khan stated that the petition was filed for seeking details of cases against Mr Gandapur under Article 19-A of the Constitution. He argued that it was right of every citizen that he should be provided information about cases against him.

Meanwhile, another bench of the high court comprising Justice Mohammad Naeem Anwar and Justice Farah Jamshed extended protective bails to several lawmakers and leader of PTI to different dates.

The petitioners whose bails were extended included the leader of opposition in Senate, Shibli Faraz, MNAs Yousaf Khan, Atif Khan, Arbab Sher Ali and Mehbood Shah, the speaker of KP Assembly, Babar Saleem Swati, the provincial minister, Zahir Shah Toru, Senator Falak Naz and Hamida Shah.

The bench sought details about the cases registered against them in Islamabad and other provinces. The lawyers representing the petitioners stated that they had been charged in multiple cases after the Nov 24 protest in Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2025