Daily Times

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday granted bail to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) senior leaders Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Asad Umar in a case registered against them over May 9 vandalism, a private TV channel reported.

Notably, angry protestors and miscreants had attacked sensitive state and military installations after the PTI chief was arrested on corruption charges on May 9.

The violent attacks were followed by a serious crackdown on the PTI whereby several party leaders and workers were arrested and slapped with cases of inciting violence and spreading unrest.

Qureshi and Umar had emerged as two key leaders who had opted not to part ways with the party after their release from custody, unlike a major chunk of their former colleagues that have denounced their party memberships. Nonetheless, following his release from jail last month, Umar stepped down from his role as PTI secretary general.

The two leaders had appeared before an additional sessions judge earlier this week in connection with a case registered against them over arson and vandalism of state and public property. After the local court had denied them bail, both leaders were seen fleeing court premises in a desperate attempt to avoid their arrest. Read PTI chief skips ACE summons for third time

Still concerned about their possible arrest, Qureshi and Umar approached the IHC seeking bail. The high court’s Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir presided over the proceedings. After hearing the arguments, the judge granted bail to both former ministers against surety bonds of Rs100,000 each. Furthermore, the court directed the police to provide records related to the case until July 10.

It may be noted that both Qureshi and Umar had Thursday failed to get relief from the IHC for the May 9 riot cases as they were absent from the hearing, allegedly due to the police preventing them from entering court premises. IHC Justice Arbab Tahir heard the bail applications for the former federal ministers regarding the cases filed in the Tarnol police station for the May 9 protests. Petitioners’ lawyer Ali Bukhari said that the two leaders came to the high court at 7:30 am but police personnel prevented them from entering the court. He urged the court to watch the CCTV footage from the IHC gates.