PESHAWAR, Jan 31: A court on Monday granted bail to two leaders of the Pukhtun Students' Federation (PSF) charged with sedition.

The court presided over by judicial magistrate Jamshed Khan Kundi ordered that the applicants, the federation's president Sardar Khan Yousafzai and Peshawar University campus chief Jawed Iqbal Khan, should be released after furnishing two sureties of Rs100,000 each.

The court observed that keeping in view the evidence on record prima facie the applicants deserved to be released on bail. The applicants have denied the charges stating that they had addressed a protest meeting against the recent increase in university fee.

They said raising voice for their rights did not amount to sedition or politics. The university administration has claimed that the accused were indulging in politics in violation of a Supreme Court judgement.

The court had reserved its order on Jan 29 after completion of arguments by the defence and the prosecution. The accused had addressed a protest demonstration of students on Jan 12.

An FIR was registered against them at the Peshawar University campus police station under sections 123-B (defiling national flag), 124-A (sedition) and 153-B (inducing students to take part in politics) of Pakistan Penal Code and Section 16 of the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance.

Advocates Abdul Lateef Afridi and Nasir Naeemkheli appeared for the applicants and argued that they were falsely implicated in the case and they were never involved in sedition.

Mr Afridi contended that neither the applicants had removed the national flag nor put it to torch. He argued that the applicants had only criticized the university administration for increasing fee.