PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has granted bail to 28 Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) activists arrested under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance following the imposition of emergency and governor’s rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
A bench comprising Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Babar Sattar directed the petitioners, including Ahsan and 27 others, to produce two surety bonds of Rs100,000 each to the satisfaction of their respective area magistrates.
“The petitioners shall furnish an undertaking that they shall neither engage in any anti-state activity nor act in any manner prejudicial to public safety or the maintenance of public order,” it declared.
The bench observed that the petitioners had made out a prima facie case for the grant of interim relief, particularly as their fundamental rights to life and liberty, guaranteed under Articles 4, 9, 10 and 15 of the Constitution, 1973, were involved.
High court asks them to promise in writing not to indulge in ‘anti-state’ activities
It fixed Oct 27 for the next hearing of the petition jointly filed by the 28 detainees, who have challenged their detention orders issued by the home department on Oct 12, 2026.
Assistant Advocate General Waqar Khalil, who was present in the court, sought time on behalf of the respondents, including the home department and the deputy commissioner of Mardan.
He promised to submit comprehensive para-wise comments on the petition, along with the relevant records and supporting documents, before the next hearing.
A panel of lawyers, including Azhar Rahim, Sajjad Ahmad, Saeed Usman and Mohammad Yasir Khattak, appeared for the petitioners and contended that the impugned executive detention orders issued by the home department under Section 3 of the West Pakistan Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, 1960, against their clients were identical in nature.
They argued that the orders neither disclosed specific grounds nor referred to any particular incident, occurrence or overt act to substantiate the sweeping allegations and apprehensions expressed therein.
The lawyers cited an earlier high court judgment titled “Aftab Alam and another vs Secretary Home and Tribal Affairs, Government of KPK, Peshawar and others”.
They maintained that the impugned orders failed to meet the mandatory legal requirements under Section 3 of the MPO Ordinance, 1960, as well as the settled principles laid down by the Supreme Court regarding preventive detention.
The counsel also drew the court’s attention to interim orders issued by the high court benches in Swat and Abbottabad on Oct 20 and 21, respectively, similarly placed individuals facing identical detention orders under Section 3 of the MPO Ordinance had been granted interim relief.
They sought parity of treatment and similar interim relief for their clients.
Also, 122 other PTI activists from Swabi district have challenged their detention under the MPO Ordinance before the high court.
A joint petition was filed on their behalf by members of the Insaf Lawyers Forum, the PTI’s lawyers’ wing.
The petitioners contended that the detention orders issued by the government were illegal and unconstitutional, arguing that they lacked the essential legal requirements for such orders.
They also sought interim relief in the form of release on bail pending the final disposal of their petition.
Several petitions have so far been filed with the court against the detention of scores of PTI activists under the MPO Ordinance across the province.
Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2026
