Religious scholar Engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza was released from Adiala jail on Friday, days after the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) Rawalpindi Bench approved his bail in a blasphemy case registered in Jhelum.
Mirza had approached the Rawalpindi Bench seeking bail in the case.
Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan heard the petition on December 3. During the hearing, Mirza’s counsel, Tahir Ayubi, presented arguments in support of the plea.
After hearing the arguments, the court accepted Mirza’s bail petition and ordered his release, directing him to submit two surety bonds worth Rs500,000 each. He instructed that the mandatory sureties must be deposited before the bail takes effect.
Following the approval of his bail and submission of the sureties, Mirza was released from Adiala jail earlier today.
A blasphemy first information report (FIR) had been lodged against Mirza in Jhelum, leading to his petition for protective relief.
The religious cleric was arrested on August 26 and moved to jail under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order, 1960 (MPO).
Section 3 of the MPO 1960, commonly known as 3-MPO, empowers the government to direct the arrest and detention of a person to prevent him from “acting in any manner prejudicial to public safety or the maintenance of public order”.
The police confirmed that the charges include provisions under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) and Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code.
Mirza has at least 3.14 million subscribers on his YouTube channel with 2,400 videos.
In 2021, the cleric survived an assassination attempt and sustained injuries when he was stabbed with a knife by assailants during one of his weekly lectures.