MQM’s Waseem Akhtar seeks bail in hate speech case

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Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) mayor-nominee Waseem Akhtar on Monday lodged a petition with the Sindh High Court (SHC) for an urgent hearing on his bail application over his remarks against the army and other state institutions.

Waseem Akhtar and other MQM leaders have been booked by the Sohrab Goth and SITE police stations for listening to a speech of Altaf Hussain in which he criticised the military establishment and other institutions.

In November last year, the SHC had issued notices to the federal and provincial law officers on the MQM leader’s petition, seeking the court’s directive for quashment of the cases under sedition and terrorism charges against him for supporting his party leader’s speech against the army in July last year.

Cases were registered against Akhtar after complaints had been filed by two citizens who accused the MQM leader of inciting violence and harming the national interests in his remarks made on television channels. The clauses of the Anti-Terrorism Act and the Telegraph Act were included in the charges brought against Akhtar. Hundreds of cases of treason and criticism of the country’s intelligence agencies had been registered against the MQM chief last year after he openly issued defamatory statements against law enforcement agencies and the Pakistan Army in his July 12 address.

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