DC Keamari office attack: Ali Zaidi gets pre-arrest bail in terror case

KARACHI: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Sindh President Ali Zaidi was granted pre-arrest bail on Friday in a terror case for allegedly attacking and ransacking the Keamari deputy commissioner (DC) office.

Police had booked Zaidi and more than 100 party supporters and workers under terrorism, and other charges after rival political activists clashed outside the DC's office on January 18.

They were nominated in the terror case after a protest against alleged rigging in Karachi’s local bodies election outside the DC office turned violent, resulting in clashes between the workers of political parties and police personnel.

During the hearing today, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) judge granted pre-arrest bail to Zaidi against a surety of Rs30,000 and later adjourned the hearing until January 28 for confirmation or otherwise of the interim bail.

On Thursday, other PTI leaders and workers, including MNA Ataullah Khan, MPAs Bilal Ghaffar, Saeed Afridi and Shabbir Qureshi, also got bail in the same case. 

Advocate Zahoor Mehsood and Farhan Sardar, who represented the applicants, stated that the PTI leaders visited the DC office to record their peaceful protest against the delay in notifying the results of some of the union councils after the LG polls.

However, PPP activists — who were also there — attacked and ransacked the DC office, yet the FIRs were lodged against their applicants, the counsel claimed. 

They argued that the case never attracted sections of the anti-terror law, while the sections of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) were bailable, and later pleaded to the court to grant the accused pre-arrest bail as they were willing to cooperate with the police in the investigation.

JI delegation to meet with PTI

Meanwhile, PTI on Friday claimed that the party was in contact with the Jamat-e-Islami (JI) for the formation of an alliance in the city council.   

Speaking to the media today after the case hearing, PTI Sindh President Zaidi said that "a delegation of JI is meeting with PTI leaders tomorrow after which the two sides will finalise their future strategy”.

The PTI leader, however, ruled out the possibility of talks with the “Zardari mafia”.

Following the local government polls in Karachi which happened on January 15, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has emerged as the biggest party followed by JI and PTI.

While PPP has also shown its willingness to form an alliance with the JI, and a delegation led by Sindh Minister Saeed Ghani also met with Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman on Thursday, the JI is yet to decide with which party they will work in the city’s local bodies.