SHC grants protective bail to Arif Alvi in three cases

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday granted protective bail to former president and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Dr Arif Alvi in three cases registered at different police stations of Punjab.

The former president had approached the SHC for obtaining protective and transitory bail in connection with three criminal cases registered against him in Mianwali, Taxila and Rawalpindi. The petitioner’s counsel Ali Tahir submitted in the petition that he was falsely involved in the cases because of political victimisation. He said the petitioner belonged to a political party that had been subjected to a campaign of targeted persecution for an extended period and this campaign included the removal of the party’s election symbol, prolonged imprisonment of its leader Imran Khan and the subjection of its party leadership.

He said the purpose of the FIRs was to harass the petitioner from continuing his peaceful political struggle against the government and requested the high court to grant protective bail so that he could defend the charges against him in different courts of the law.

A division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Salahuddin Panhwar after a preliminary hearing of the petition granted protective bail to the Dr Alvi till December 23 in each case with a direction to surrender before the relevant courts.

The high court also directed the office to fix the matter before a constitutional bench as the petitioner had also sought direction for the enforcement of his rights.

Meanwhile, Karachi PTI President Raja Azhar condemned the arrest of former MNA and PTI leader Alamgir Khan by personnel of law enforcement agencies. Azhar said Khan was picked up by personnel of law enforcement agencies from his house in the Gulshan-e-Iqbal area when he came from Islamabad. He demanded immediate release of Khan and asked the police to provide details of cases, if any, registered against him.