LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday restrained the authorities from removing Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s former MNA Aliya Hamza from Gujranwala jail and summoned details of cases registered against her.

Justice Ali Baqar Najafi passed the order on a petition filed by Hamza Jamil Malik, the husband of the woman politician, who has been incarcerated since last year’s May 9 attacks mainly on the army facilities.

Advocate Salman Akram Raja appeared on behalf of the petitioner and contended before the court that the authorities continued to arrest the wife of his client in new cases following her grant of bail in old ones.

He said the petitioner’s wife had been granted bail in all the cases so far registered against her, but her release from jail was being delayed with mala fide intention.

He stated that the petitioner had no knowledge how many cases had been registered against his wife.

He asked the court to order the federal and provincial authorities to furnish complete details of the cases to the petitioner and also restrained the likely shifting of his wife to any other province.

Justice Najafi directed the federal and provincial law officers to furnish reports on behalf of the respondents by Wednesday (today).

“Meanwhile, Aliya Hamza Malik, the wife of the petitioner shall not be removed from District Jail, Gujranwala,” the judge wrote in his order.

bail extended: An anti-terrorism court on Tuesday extended the pre-arrest bail of PTI Secretary General Omar Ayub, former federal minister Asad Umar, former senator Azam Swati, two sisters of PTI founding chairman Imran Khan and others in the Jinnah House attack case of May 9 riots.

All the suspects appeared before the court on expiry of their pre-arrest bail.

Asad Umar and Ali Imtiaz Warraich fainted due to suffocation in the courtroom.

Mr Umar was shifted to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC). The doctors discharged him after conducting his initial tests for a cardiac arrest.

ATC Judge Khalid Arshad extended bail of the suspects till Sept 3 and directed the police to complete the investigation to the extent of the nominated suspects.

The judge confirmed the pre-arrest bail of Nadeem Abbas Bara, Imtiaz Mahmood, Naheed Malik, Humaira and other suspects who were not nominated in the FIR.

A lawyer told the court that police were not recording statements of Aleema Khan and Uzma Khan, the sisters of Imran Khan.

At this, the judge directed the investigating officer to record the statements of both sisters and complete the investigation.

Sarwar Road police registered an FIR against PTI leaders and workers for attacking and vandalising the Jinnah House during the protests of May 9 last year against the arrest of former PM Imran Khan.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2024