Anti-bail appeal in LHC

Punjab government files appeal in LHC against the bail of former DPO involved in the Sialkot lynching case.

Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court (LHC) constituted a division bench on Monday to hear the Punjab government’s appeal against bail granted to former DPO Sialkot Waqar Ahmad Chohan.

Chohan is accused of patronising the brutal lynching of two brothers in Sialkot. An anti-terrorism court of Gujranwala had released Chohan on bail on furnishing a surety bond of Rs100,000.

The government had filed an appeal through Advocate Ehtisham Qadir, pleading that Chohan was not entitled for concession of bail as his role had been dubbed as a supervisor in the case.

The appeal said that the former DPO had deliberately allowed the angry mob to lynch the two teenaged brothers Hafiz Mughees and Muneeb. The DPO had also not summoned an ambulance to remove the bodies of the deceased brothers and instead let the mob desecrate them.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19th, 2010.