Tariq Saeed Peshawar
The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday ordered the release of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf leader and former Federal Minister Ali Mohammad Khan, who had been arrested under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance 1960 in the light of May 9 violence.
A reserved verdict on Khan’s bail plea was announced by a two-member bench comprising Justice Ijaz Anwar and Justice Syed Mohammad Attique Shah.
The former minister of the state, it may be recalled, was initially arrested from Islamabad on May 11 amid the crackdown on PTI leaders in the wake of violent protests triggered by the arrest of the party chairman Imran Khan. He was released and rearrested multiple times before being taken into custody by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police.
Khan had, however, secured the orders of his release from the Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi Bench on May 30 but was rearrested from outside the Adiala Jail under the same law by the KP police.
During the hearing on Wednesday Justice Anwar remarked that whoever holds a press conference is released and the one who doesn’t, gets arrested again. “How do such serious allegations get abolished with just a press conference,” he asked.
The court then directed the authorities to release the former minister while announcing the verdict. It also directed Khan to submit bonds worth Rs100,000 as surety against his bail.
