PHC grants transit bail to PTI MNAs

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday granted transit bail to three Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Members National Assembly (MNAs), Anwar Taj, Saleem Rahman and Sajid Khan until November 18.

The court ordered them to appear before the relevant courts while restraining authorities from arresting them in connection with the cases registered against them.A two-member bench comprising Justice SM Attique Shah and Justice Sahibzada Asadullah also sought responses from the federal and provincial governments regarding the cases filed against the petitioners. During the hearing, Arshad Ahmad appearing for the petitioners informed the court that his clients were MNAs hailing from Charsadda, Swat, and Mohmand districts, respectively, and were affiliated with PTI. He explained that multiple cases had been registered against them in Punjab during the recent protests. He said his clients were aware of some of the cases, but they had not been provided details about several other cases.

The lawyer argued that due to the lack of information about these cases, the petitioners were unable to defend themselves properly and requested the court to grant them transit bail so that they could appear in the relevant courts.

He requested the court to direct the relevant authorities to provide the necessary details of the cases to the petitioners.The court was informed that the petitioners had previously secured transit bail to appear in courts in other provinces. However, new cases have been registered against them in Punjab.

The court granted transit bail to the petitioners in two known cases and restrained their arrest in other cases. The court directed the government to provide details of all the cases against them.