KARACHI, April 24 The Sindh High Court restrained the police on Friday from arresting former chief minister and federal minister Liaquat Ali Khan Jatoi and his brother, ex-senator Sadaqat Jatoi, till April 30, the next date of hearing of their petitions for quashment of cases against them.

Advocates Khwaja Naveed Ahmed and Abdul Sattar Pirzada vehemently argued for another interim order restraining the police from registering more 'bogus' cases against the petitioners but the bench, which consisted of Justices Gulzar Ahmed and Malik Muhammad Aqil, said the plea would be taken up after notice to the prosecution. The counsel alleged that the petitioners, who belonged to the opposition, were being involved in one case after another on trumped-up criminal charges.

The ex-CM, they said, was recently granted interim bail by the high court in the sum of Rs300,000 but to frustrate the court order and to throw him behind bars in spite of it, two more cases were registered against him and his brother at Khairpur Nathan Shah, Dadu.

The offences of intimidating and threatening an irrigation official and damaging a water channel were alleged to have been committed by them at Khairpur Nathan Shah, though they had all along been living in Karachi during the period. The ex-CM's son, Karim Ali Jatoi, was suspended from his office of district nazim of Dadu in another act of vengeance, they alleged.

The counsel contended that the cases were politically motivated and were aimed at browbeating the Jatois into submission or victimising them for opposing the ruling party. They requested that the police should be restrained from arresting the accused and registering new cases.

Deputy district attorneys

The bench directed the provincial prosecution departments to consider the cases of seven deputy district attorneys for appointment within three months and decide them by speaking orders.

Petitioners submitted through Advocate Gohar Iqbal that they had been recommended for appointment by the Sindh Public Service Commission and the government was bound to appoint them under the law. However, no appointment letters have been issued to them despite lapse of a considerable period of time.

Assistant Advocate-General Adnan Karim Memon stated that the selection of district attorneys by the SPSC was the subject of an inquiry by Justice Faisal Arab of the SHC in 2006. The judge in his report expressed doubts about the transparency of the selection process and the provincial government instituted a probe of its own in the light of the report. The inquiry was still in progress, he said.