Dr Asim case: Sindh High Court issues notices on Kaimkhani’s bail plea

ATC had earlier rejected application in the terrorists’ facilitation case

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) issued on Monday notices to the special public prosecutor and others on an application filed by Pak Sarzameen Party president Anis Kaimkhani, seeking bail in a case registered against Dr Asim Hussain and others for treating and harbouring terrorists at Dr Asim’s hospitals.

Kaimkhani was arrested and sent to jail after an anti-terrorism court rejected his bail plea in the case.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Karachi mayor-nominee Wasim Akhtar, party leader Rauf Siddiqui and Pakistan Peoples Party’s Abdul Qadir Patel, who were named as co-accused in the case, were also arrested and sent to jail.

Dr Asim, a close aide of former president Asif Ali Zardari, has been booked on the complaint of the Rangers for allegedly treating and harbouring suspected terrorists, militants and gangsters at the North Nazimabad and Clifton branches of his private hospital at the behest of political leaders.

In his bail plea, Kaimkhani argued that he left the country in 2013 after differences with the MQM leadership as he feared for his life. The PSP leader claimed he had never contacted Dr Asim nor had he referred any patient to his hospital.

The applicant argued that Dr Asim had not mentioned his name in any statement, yet the trial court dismissed his bail without considering such facts. He pleaded to the court to suspend the ATC’s order of rejecting his pre-arrest bail and grant him post-arrest bail. After the initial hearing, the SHC bench issued notices to the special public prosecutor and others for August 12 to file comments by the next date of the hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 9^th, 2016.