LARKANA: The Larkana sessions court on Saturday granted interim pre-arrest bail to Sindh National Front (SNF) chairman Mumtaz Ali Bhutto after the local antiterrorism court declined to hear the murder case registered against him at the Keti Mumtaz police station.

Mr Bhutto appeared before the ATC, presided over by Judge Ashok Kumar, on Saturday.

His counsel Ali Nawaz Ghanghro, Abdul Wahab Bhutto, Mohammed Hashim Soomro and others pleaded that the case registered under FIR No 19/2016 against their client was not fit to be heard by an ATC.

After hearing the arguments, the ATC judge transferred the case to the sessions court, which granted an interim pre-arrest bail to Mr Bhutto. Judge Abdul Ghafoor Kalhoro fixed the hearing for March 6.

Mr Bhutto is facing the charge of getting a man, Asad Khuhro, killed in November last year. He says he has been implicated in a “false” case on political grounds.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2017