PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday directed the local police to produce the transcript of a media talk of opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader retired Captain Mohammad Safdar on the basis of which he was booked for committing sedition and inciting personnel of the armed forces to mutiny.

A bench consisting of Justice Lal Jan Khattak and Justice Abdul Shakoor extended until Nov 7 the interim pre-arrest bail granted to Mr Safdar in the case on March 10.

The high court had granted that bail to Mr Safdar, who is the son-in-law of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, on the condition of furnishing two surety bonds of Rs100,000 each.

Station house officer of the East Cantonment police station Imran Nawaz Alam had registered the FIR against the PML-N leader over the alleged sedition and incitement of the personnel of the armed forces to mutiny during a media talk on Feb 9 after attending a hearing on the high court’s premises.

The SHO claimed in the FIR that he had registered the case after getting the government’s written permission.

The PML-N leader was booked under Pakistan Penal Code Section 121 (waging war against Pakistan), Section 121-A (conspiracy to wage war against Pakistan), Section 124-A (sedition), 131 (Mutiny or seducing soldier for mutiny), Section 153 (provocation to cause riot) and Section 505 (statement to cause public mischief).

The petitioner has claimed that his media talk didn’t amount to sedition or other offences mentioned in the FIR.

The SHO claimed that Mr Safdar through his news conference had tried to defame Pakistan and its institutions and spread anarchy in institutions.

MUQAM CASE: The bench extended the interim pre-arrest bail granted to former federal minister and PML-N provincial chief Amir Muqam until Oct 26 in a probe against him by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) regarding his assets.

It adjourned hearing into Mr Muqam’s petition for pre-arrest bail until the final conclusion of the case by the trial court.

Mr Muqam appeared before the bench along with his lawyers, who sought adjournment of the case.

The court had granted interim pre-arrest bail to the petitioner last year on the condition of furnishing two surety bonds of Rs1 million each.

The petitioner contended that the NAB chairman had issued his arrest warrants while probing his assets.

He added that the bureau had repeatedly been issuing call-up notices to him and intended to arrest him.

The petitioner contended that he had established a family business firm under the name of AM & Co and the said firm had an average yearly profit of Rs524 million.

He said all assets purchased in his name and his family members since the year 1989 came to Rs701.239 million, whereas only the income of their firm in the last eight years exceeded Rs1.637 billion, which was more than twice the value of the assets.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2021