After bail cancellation: Mayor demands return of surety amount

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) issued on Friday notice to the provincial advocate-general on jailed Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar's plea seeking return of the surety deposited by him against pre-arrest bail in as many 23 cases lodged against him.

The FIRs have been registered on charges of sedition, facilitation and listening to inciting speeches of Muttahida Qaumi Movement's (MQM) founding chief Altaf Hussain.



Headed by Justice Ahmed Ali Sheikh, the two-judge bench asked the law officer to file comments by the next hearing.

In January this year, the court had granted interim pre-arrest bail to the MQM leader in connection with two cases regarding his act of allegedly listening to Hussain's speeches against national institutions.

Justice Sadiq Hussain Bhatti had directed him to furnish surety of Rs50,000 each in two cases lodged at Sohrab Goth and Site Super Highway police stations.

The FIRs were lodged under sections 123-A and 124-A of the Pakistan Penal Code, read with Section 25 of the Telegraph Act and sections 6/7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

The complainants, Umar Khan and Muhabbat Khan, had alleged that during a current affairs programme on TV, Akhtar had supported Hussain's statements against several federal institutions, the Inter-Services Intelligence and the Military Intelligence, Operation Zarb-e-Azb and the Karachi operation. On the contrary, Akhtar had termed the allegations 'false'.

Later, the MQM leader filed 21 more applications seeking bail in different cases lodged at various police stations. One of the cases relates to alleged treatment and sheltering of terrorists belonging to the MQM and Lyari gangsters at the private health facilities of former petroleum adviser, Dr Asim Hussain - presently residing in a sub-jail at Jinnah hospital.



On Friday, Akhtar's lawyer moved an application pleading to the court to direct its Nazir (official) to return the surety deposited by the applicant in as many as 23 cases.

After the initial hearing, the judges issued notice to the Sindh advocate-general to file comments.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 24^th, 2016.