Family not allowed to meet Jatoi despite court orders
The family of former federal minister and Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) leader Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi has complained that they are not being allowed to meet Jatoi who is kept in Nara Jail, Hyderabad, in violation of the court's order.
Naveen Jatoi, wife of the GDA leader, said while talking to The Express Tribune that her husband's implication even in an FIR of motorbike snatching has made it evident that Pakistan Peoples Party's government is victimising political opponents.
Jatoi was arrested on February 18 while returning from a court in Noushehro Feroze district in connection with a murder FIR lodged at Moro police station in Noushehro Feroze last year. He and his son Bilawal Jatoi were charged with planning to kill Bilawal Zardari on the election day on February 8, 2024. Meanwhile, his arrest was also declared in two more cases, registered at Dokri and Badah police stations in Larkana, under sections 324, 353, 148, 149, 216A, and 402. However, on Thursday, the Sindh High Court Larkana Circuit barred the Sindh police from arresting Jatoi in any new case except for three cases in which he has already been taken into custody.
The order was given following a petition filed by Naveen Jatoi. On the same day, the Anti Terrorism Court in Noushehro Feroze granted him bail in the murder FIR. "If the petitioner's husband isn't shown to be arrested in the three impugned FIRs, he shall not be arrested," ordered justice Muhammad Saleem Jessar and justice Adnan-ul-Karim Memon.
The bench also ordered the Sindh police to submit a complete record of all the FIRs registered or pending against the GDA leader.
Separately, during the hearing before the ATC judge, advocate Muhammad Ayaz Mari, who represented the FIR's complainant, cited the prohibitory clause to argue against grant of bail to the ex-federal minister.
"A court of law can't dismiss bail on the sole ground that the alleged offence is falling within the ambit of the prohibitory clause, but it has to consider the available material and then decide [whether] the matter is of further inquiry or not?" observed the ATC judge Hafiz Misbahuddin Phulpoto.
The court granted him bail against two solvent sureties of Rs100,000 each but with a note of caution for the 'accused' to remain careful in future. Jatoi's wife expressed hope that they will also secure bail in other cases from Larkana-based court.
Political hostilities
Naveen contended that President Asif Ali Zardari himself is behind his husband's arrest. "Antagonism is decades old. Zardari had faced election defeat from Ghulam Mustafa Khan Jatoi [former caretaker Prime Minister Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi and father Murtaza Jatoi] in 1993."
She claimed that a majority of the towering political figures from across Sindh have bowed down before Zardari but her husband continues to resist his tentacles. According to her, Jatoi was invited to join the PPP after his father's death in 2009. She said some years back he was again approached either to join the party or leave politics.
She went on to blame men allegedly supported by the ruling party for attempting to occupy their agricultural land in Keti Jatoi in two separate attempts which stood foiled. "Zardari won elections through rigging," she alleged. "The people of Noushehro Feroez and Nawabshah are not with them."
Jatoi underwent a cardiac procedure last year. His wife was worried that his medicines, which were handed over to the prison staff of Nara Jail, have been given to him or not. On Thursday the court expressed dismay over the transfer of Jatoi to a prison in Hyderabad in violation of the court order to shift him to a jail hospital in Noushehro Feroze. The jail superintendent was also slapped with a minor punishment of keeping him seated in the court until the judge left.