KARACHI, Feb 17: Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany of the Sindh High Court admitted on Monday Ishtiaq Ahmed, the chief of the Jamaat-ul-Muslimeen, to bail against a surety of Rs100,000.

The accused was booked by the Gulshan-i-Iqbal police under section 10 (3) of the Enforcement of Hudood Act.

Siddique Memon lodged the complaint with the police that the accused married a woman while she was still in the Nikah of her first husband.

Khawaja Naveed Ahmed, advocate, moving the bail application, maintained that the woman had been divorced in 1997, and his client married her in 1998 and that the FIR was lodged in 2001 after a delay of more than three years. The counsel maintained that the complainant lodged the FIR as he headed a rival group of the Jamaat. After hearing both Khawaja Naveed Ahmed, the counsel for the applicant, and Justice Shafi Mohammedi, counsel for the complainant, the court reserved its orders.

Announcing the order on Monday the court admitted the accused/applicant to bail.—APP