Treating militants: Dr Akmal Waheed granted bail by ATC-I

Waheed’s wife says that her husband had not been released in the evening.

KARACHI: The Anti-Terrorism Court-I granted bail to Dr Akmal Waheed on Thursday for a surety of Rs50,000.

Dr Waheed had been remanded in police custody twice in connection with a police complaint that he had violated the fourth schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997. Dr Waheed was remanded on Monday till August 17 and his lawyer Mohammad Farooq told The Express Tribune that he will be presented in court on Friday in connection with the remand hearing.

Dr Waheed was acquitted in 2006 on charges that he had provided medical treatment to militants.

After his release, he served at a hospital in the UAE but was detained there and sentenced to a jail term.

He had arrived in Karachi on August 8 after the completion of his imprisonment and was detained by the Gulshan-e-Iqbal police, who claimed that he violated the undertaking that he would report to the police about his whereabouts and did not inform the police when he left for the UAE.

Akmal Waheed’s wife told The Express Tribune that she had permitted surety for her husband’s bail. She was told by the court that the release orders were being filed for Dr Waheed.

However, she said that her husband had not been released in the evening and the police did not give her a clear reason as to why he was not being released, they said that they needed to consult with higher police officials. His lawyer fears that they will issue detention orders for Dr Waheed. He says the police keeps coming up with delay tactics.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 17^th, 2012.