Daily Times

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Monday granted conditional bail to rights activist Gulalai Ismail’s father, Professor Muhammad Ismail.

A single-member bench of the high court, comprising Justice Qaiser Rasheed, instructed Prof Ismail to “be careful” in the future while asking him to submit a surety of Rs 100,000 as well as personal guarantees from two individuals.

The professor had been sent on judicial remand on October 25, a day after his daughter alleged that he had been picked up from outside the PHC by “men wearing Militia (sic) dress”. Following the initial 14-day remand, his judicial custody had been extended further.

A case is registered against Prof Ismail at the Federal Investigation Agency’s Cyber Crime Circle in Peshawar under Sections 10 and 11 of the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016, read with Section 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code. His bail request had earlier been rejected by a special court in Peshawar.

During Monday’s proceedings, Justice Rasheed expressed his displeasure at the absence of the assistant attorney general (AG) from the hearing of the bail plea.

Addressing Deputy AG Asghar Khan Kundi, who had appeared in court instead of the assistant AG, Justice Qaiser said that the assistant AG had assured him that he would not be absent from proceedings again and that officials from the AG’s office would appear when needed. “The attorney general’s office seems to have appointed people who do not appear in courts,” he said.

The judge subsequently imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on the AG’s office and banned the entry of the assistant AG to his court.