Freedom eludes anti-PPP alliance leader
As freedom from incarceration eludes Grand Democratic Alliance's leader Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi, three bails from as many courts on Monday in addition to an earlier order of Sindh High Court failed to secure his release from the jail custody.
The former federal minister after his discharge from Liaquat University Hospital, Hyderabad, on Monday was sent back to Nara Jail as a civil judge and judicial magistrate of Sukkur district granted his 14-day judicial remand in a hitherto unknown case.
Confusion prevailed while his discharge card was being prepared at the hospital with some sources insinuating about continuity of his imprisonment on judicial remand and others suggesting that he might be set free. He was admitted to the LUH on February 22 with complaints of chest pain.
Earlier, Larkana's Additional District and Session Judge Rashid Ali Dayo granted bails to Jatoi in two separate FIRs registered at Badeh and Dokri police stations. Ahsan Hyder Shah Syed, Additional District and Session Judge in Khairpur, also approved his bail in an FIR lodged at Hingroja police station.
These FIRs contain sections like 324, 353, 148, 149, 216A, 109, 506/2, 353, 224 and 402 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and 24 of Sindh Arms Act (SAA). The charges include attempt to murder, obstructing government officials from performing duty and robbery, among others.
Interestingly, his remand has been given even though Sindh High Court Larkana Circuit on February 20 had barred the Sindh police from arresting Jatoi in any new case except those three cases in which he has already been taken into custody.
These included the two FIRs in Larkana and one of a murder case registered at Moro police station in Noushehro Feroze district.
The Anti Terrorism Court of Noushehro Feroze on February 20 had also granted bail to Jatoi in the murder case. The GDA leader's wife, Naveen Jatoi, has time and again blamed Pakistan Peoples Party's Sindh government for framing her husband in fabricated cases in order to pressurize their family. She alleged that political opposition to the PPP's leadership and agricultural lands are the obvious causes behind his arrest.
"It appears that the accused isn't nominated in the FIR with specific allegation or role," reads the judicial remand order given by a civil judge and judicial magistrate of Sukkur on Monday. "However, it appears that the accused is implicated through further statements of the complainant under section 162 of CrPC." His jail custody has been approved till March 9.
"It is an admitted fact that the name of the accused [Jatoi] isn't mentioned in the FIR or even in the challan," observed senior lawyer Sajjad Ahmed Chandio while talking to The Express Tribune. "And when the case is under trial then it's the prerogative of the concerned trial court to add or exempt/acquit any person as accused." He was referring to the civil judge's remand order.