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       PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday extended protective bail to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur until Jan 16 as the federal government revealed that he had been named in 65 cases registered in Islamabad and Punjab.

       A bench consisting of Justice Sahibzada Asadullah and Justice Wiqar Ahmad directed law-enforcement agencies not to arrest Mr Gandapur in those cases until Jan 17.

       It also directed the National Accountability Bureau to produce details of the cases related to the chief minister.

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       Lawyers Alam Khan Adenzai and Ali Zaman appeared before the bench along with Mr Gandapur, whereas deputy attorney general Hazrat Said and senior NAB prosecutor Hashmat Jehangir also showed up.

       CM complains he wasn’t allowed to meet Imran in Adiala Jail

       The court had granted protective bail to Mr Gandapur on Oct 22 until Nov 14 over his petition for ordering the federal government to provide details of cases registered against him by the federal and Punjab governments. His bail was later extended until Dec 17.

       The lawyers said that the petition was filed under Article 19-A of the Constitution, which granted every citizen the right to have information about the cases registered against him.

       They pointed out that after the Nov 24 and onward protests of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf multiple FIRs had been registered against the petitioner and other party leaders.

       The counsel said that the petitioner wanted to appear before the relevant courts for which he needed details of the cases against him.

       AAG Hazrat Said informed the bench that he had submitted a report on behalf of the federal government according to which the petitioner had been named in 32 cases registered in Islamabad and 33 cases in Punjab.

       He added that no case was registered by the Federal Investigation Agency against the petitioner.

       NAB prosecutor Hashmat Jehangir said that there was an ongoing inquiry against the petitioner by the bureau in Peshawar, whereas he had not received reports from other three provinces.

       Meanwhile, Mr Gandapur told reporters on the premises of the high court that the PTI leadership and workers would follow the orders of their incarcerated leader, Imran Khan, on the issue of civil disobedience movement.

       He said he went to Adiala Jail a day ago to meet Imran but prison authorities didn’t allow that meeting insisting there was no clearance for it.

       The chief minister said that he represented KP, so he didn’t need any clearance to visit the prison.

       Also in the day, the bench granted protective bail to several PTI lawmakers and leaders for different duration directing law-enforcement agencies not to arrest them in any of the cases registered against them.

       These petitioners included Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Shibli Faraz, former prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan Niazi, former senator Qazi Mohammad Anwar, MNAs Anwar Taj, Saleemur Rehman, Sajid Khan and Mobeen Arif Jatt (Punjab), and several PTI leaders from Punjab Samabia Tahir, Ahmad Shah, Omer Tanveer, Malik Taimoor Masood, Malik Fahad Masood, Malik Saad Ali and Raja Azhar Mehmood.

       The bench granted protective bail to Shibli Faraz and Qazi Anwar until Jan 16 and to Sardar Abdul Qayyum until Jan 14, directing the government to provide details of cases wherein they’re named.

       Similarly, lawyers representing MNAs from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa stated that the petitioners had been named in multiple cases after the Nov 24 protests in Islamabad.

       They requested the bench to grant them protective bail so that they could appear before the relevant courts. The bench granted them bails for 10 days.

       In other cases against PTI leaders from Punjab, it granted protective bail to the petitioners for 14 days.

       Advocate Alam Khan Adenzai appeared for MNA Mubeen Arif Jatt and stated his client had reached Peshawar from Dubai.

       He stated that he had already been granted transit bail in two of the cases registered against him, but there were several other cases about which he had no knowledge.

       He requested the bench to grant him protective bail so that he could approach other courts to get details of the cases against him.

       Deputy attorney general Daulat Khan objected to the petition, insisting that instead of landing in Peshawar, why the petitioner didn’t go to the relevant city to get relief from a local court.

       The bench observed that the petitioners approached the Peshawar High Court for being chased in those areas.

       Justice Asadullah observed that interim relief in such cases was the right of a petitioner and it was the job of the court to provide the same to the people approaching it.

       The bench directed the DAG that if he had any objection, he should contest it before the relevant court when the petitioner approached it.

       Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2024