The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Monday granted interim bail to Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) MPA, Sardar Yar Mohammad Rind and ordered his release, provided that there were no other pending cases against him.
A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry resumed the hearing on an appeal filed by the former federal minister and incumbent provincial lawmaker against an Anti-terrorism court’s earlier conviction against him.
During the hearing the details of Yar Mohammad’s case were presented in the court and his counsel Advocate Akram Sheikh termed the trial court’s earlier action as one-sided arguing that his client was not represented during the trial and was sentenced without being able to present his case. He requested the court to consider the fact that the earlier sentencing had been carried out in absentia.
The apex court granted interim bail to the PML-Q lawmaker upon submission of two sureties amounting to Rs 500,000 each.
The Leader of the opposition in the Balochistan Assembly was arrested on November 1 from the Supreme Court’s building when he appeared at the premises for the hearing of his plea against the verdict of an anti-terrorism court in Quetta of handing him life imprisonment.
Earlier in June 2011, an anti-terrorism court convicted Sardar Yar Mohammad Rind and his son, in absentia, among four others of kidnapping a man and sentenced them to life imprisonment.
