KARACHI, Aug 24: A division bench told the police on Friday that no new case might be registered against civil rights campaigner Iqbal Kazmi without intimating the Sindh High Court.

The petitioner informed the bench, comprising Chief Justice SHC Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Faisal Arab, that he had not been released from jail despite having been granted bail in all the cases filed against him.

He added that the jail authorities had told him that he was required by the police in a case concerning fraud, registered at the Liaquatabad police station.

The bench observed that this latest case was evidently mala fide in nature, intended to keep the petitioner behind bars. Asking Mr Kazmi to seek bail from a competent court regarding the latest FIR, the bench directed the home department to provide protection to the petitioner and his family.

Assistant advocate-general Abdul Jabbar Lakho produced a notification assigning two constables and an assistant sub-inspector to the security of Mr Kazmi’s family.

Advocates Farooq H. Naek and Adnan Karim were appointed pro bono counsel in the petition and Mr Karim represented the petitioner on Friday. September 5 was fixed as the next date of hearing.

MQM-H chief’s acquittal plea

A division bench of Sindh High Court comprising Justice Muhammad Afzal Soomro and Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaffery on Friday adjourned the proceedings for Sept 6 on the acquittal plea filed by Amir Khan, leader of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM-Haqiqi), and others against their conviction in a double-murder case, APP adds.

The court also ordered appointment of Advocate Abdul Rasheed Nizamani at the state’s expense to represent an appellant, Kala Nazim, in the case.

The appellants were convicted of killing two activists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Anjum Uzair and Mohammad Naeem, and injuring Muhammad Shahid on June 23, 2003, during the by-election of NA-255 constituency in Landhi.

The convicts had challenged the verdict of the trial court in the High Court with an appeal to set aside the punishment while the state also moved an appeal for the enhancement of the sentence to all the convicts.

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