KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court has allowed the Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar to travel abroad on an official visit. The ATC-II judge granted him permission to leave the country for eight days against a surety of Rs 2 million and ordered the court office to return his passport. It also directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to allow the mayor to go abroad. Waseem through his counsel filed an application seeking permission to travel to Russia abroad on an official visit for eight days. The mayor, who is out on bail, is facing several charges ranging from his involvement in May 12 riots, listening to hate speeches and facilitating treatment of suspected terrorists at Dr Asim’s hospital. He was booked along with Dr Asim, the former petroleum minister and a close aide of PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, MQM’s Rauf Siddiqui, Anis Qaimkhani of the Pak Sarzameen Party, Qadir Patel and a Pasban-e-Pakistan leader on charges of facilitating and providing treatment and shelter to suspected terrorists at Dr Asim Hospital. He was also facing charges of facilitating and listening to the hate speech of MQM founder Altaf Hussain. Hussain delivered provocative speech instigating his workers against the country’s security agencies. Some eight cases were also registered against him in connection with 12 May mayhem. Meanwhile, a sessions court gave more time to police to submit report on whether the relevant section of the anti-terror law could be incorporated into the FIR registered against Nehal Hashmi, the PML-N’s former loyalist. The court have given this direction in an application filed by a lawyer seeking inclusion of Section 7 of the Anti-terrorism Act, 1999 into the FIR registered against Hashmi for railing against the judiciary and the Panama JIT members. The lawyer stated in his application that Hashmi committed an offence aimed at threatening a particular section of society and thus, it attracted the anti-terror law sections as it was a settled law that the offence against society came within the ambit of terrorism. Earlier, the SHO had informed the judge that the case was being investigated and if the offence was made out against the accused under the anti-terror law, the relevant section would be incorporated in the investigation report. Published in Daily Times, June 24th, 2017.