Non-bailable arrest warrants out for MQM chief, mayor-nominee
Pakistan
KARACHI: An antiterrorism court on Wednesday issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of self-exiled chief of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement Altaf Hussain and 22 other party leaders, including mayor-nominee Waseem Akhtar, in a case registered against them for delivering and listening to a speech against the military establishment.
The Gadap police filed a charge-sheet against the accused persons including Dr Farooq Sattar, Abdul Rashid Godil and Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui in the case stating that the MQM chief delivered the speech against the country’s solidarity and the accused persons acted as facilitators for the speech.
MQM leader Rauf Siddiqui, who was also nominated in the FIR, has already obtained pre-arrest bail in the case.
The court issued NBWs for the arrest of the remaining accused persons as the police declared them absconders in the charge-sheet.
Granted bail
The MQM mayor-nominee and senior leader Haider Abbas Rizvi were granted interim bail in a case pertaining to the use of loudspeaker and breach of peace.
The case was registered by the Soldier police for violating the Loudspeaker Act and violent activities on Nov 26, 2015.
An additional district and sessions court gave the MQM leaders interim pre-arrest bail in the sum of Rs10,000 each till Jan 20.
The same court had on Wednesday issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of the MQM leaders who included Dr Farooq Sattar, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Kunwar Naveed, Mohammed Hussain, Kamal Pasha and Faisal Sabzwari on a police report.
Hearing adjourned
The hearing of bail applications of the MQM mayor-nominee in 25 cases and Mr Rizvi in three other cases was put off till Friday by the Sindh High Court. The bail applications were not heard as one of the judges of a division bench was not available.
‘MQM workers’ jailed
An antiterrorism court sentenced two alleged MQM workers to suffer rigorous imprisonment for 15 years in a case pertaining to an attack on police within the jurisdiction of the Pakistan Bazar.
The accused persons were found guilty of attacking the police on Sept 12, 2013. They were arrested on Sept 24, 2013.
Remanded
A school principal allegedly involved in her husband’s murder was remanded in police custody along with a co-accused for investigation and interrogation.
Judicial Magistrate, South, Aneesur Rehman, gave Ayesha, the principal of a private school, and Shoukat in police custody for 10 days.
They allegedly killed Mohammed Irfan in the Defence area.
Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2016
