Capt Safdar approaches LHC for protective bail

Captain (retd) Muhammad Safdar on Monday approached the Lahore High Court (LHC) to acquire protective bail, a day after authorities booked him under sedition charges for “provoking the people against the state and its institutions.”

The retired captain and son-in-law of the PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif said that the case was political, and he should be granted protective bail. He also added that he wanted to cooperate in the investigation.

A First Information Report (FIR) was registered against Safdar and a Punjab Assembly lawmaker from the PML-N, Imran Khalid Butt, in a police station at Gujranwala’s Satellite Town on Sunday.

According to the FIR, Captain (retd) Safdar had threatened to “oust the government through protests”. He also allegedly provoked people against the state and its institutions.

Safdar had announced that if authorities refused to give permission to the PML-N to hold a rally in Gujranwala on October 16, he would force them into giving the permission, the FIR claimed.

One day later, a FIR was also registered against the PML-N’s supreme leader at Shahdara police station in Lahore in which sections 120 A and B; 121 A and B, 123 A and B and 124 A and B had been imposed, among other provisions.

The text of the FIR stated that Nawaz had conspired against Pakistan’s prestigious institutions by making provocative speeches while being in London. The purpose of those speeches was to declare Pakistan a ‘state of hooligans’, the FIR claimed.

Among some prominent PML-N leaders nominated in the FIR were Maryam Nawaz, former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Ahsan Iqbal, Muhammad Zubair, Marriyum Aurganzeb, Saira Afzal Tarrar and others.