Daily Times

KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court has granted interim bail to former Pakistan Muslim League-N loyalist Nehal Hashmi in a case related to his incendiary and threatening speech targeting the judges of the Supreme Court and the Panama Joint Investigation Team (JIT).

The judge approved bail for Senator Hashmi against a surety of Rs 200,000 and adjourned the hearing until July 21.

A video had emerged on social media featuring the senator addressing a gathering in which he warned opponents and those probing the Panama Papers allegations of dire consequences if they continued with the accountability of PM Nawaz Sharif and his family.

Earlier, a local court had transferred the case against Hashmi to ATC in the wake of a police report which stated that Hashmi’s speech attracted the Section 7 of the Anti-terrorism Act, 1999 for it was an attempt to create mayhem in the country.

Senator Hashmi had been booked in a case registered at the Bahadurabad police station for launching a bitter rant against the judiciary and the Panama JIT member for holding the prime minister’s family accountable.

The Supreme Court had taken a suo motu notice of the video showing Hashmi making threatening remarks against the judges and the Panama JIT and later indicted him in a contempt of court case.

Meanwhile, a local court indicted two Chinese nationals in a case related to stealing data from an automated teller machine (ATM).

The judge read out the charges against Zhong Xianming, Xie Yie and Zhong Xianquan, who pleaded not guilty and opted to contest the case.

According to the prosecution, two Chinese nationals were allegedly removing skimming devices and pinhole camera panel from an ATM facility of a private bank near Teen Talwar in Clifton.

The FIA had recovered skimming devices, external hard disks and documents from their possession.

Published in Daily Times, July 14^th , 2017.