An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Friday accepted the interim bail of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader and nominated mayor Waseem Akhtar in 21 cases regarding hate speech.
The bail in four cases of hate speech was accepted for Rs 10,000 surety bond each whereas the bail in 17 cases was approved over Rs 20,000 each. Waseem Akhtar will appear in the court on February 2.
He has approached the ATC for pre-arrest bail in 23 cases registered with several police stations for arranging the inflammatory speech of MQM Chief Altaf Hussain.
Meanwhile, hearing of the case against 17 MQM members including Farooq Sattar was held by judicial magistrate’s court.
The court reissued non-bailable arrest warrants for Farooq Sattar, Khalid Maqbool, Faisal Sabzwari, Kanwar Naveed and Nasreen Jaleel under the Load Speaker Act.
The judge has ordered to present all the MQM members in court on February 18.
Meanwhile, the ATC has also sentenced Lyari gang war’s Sikander Lasi aka Sani to 32 years in imprisonment for possessing explosive material, police encounter, attempt to murder and under ammunition act. The accused was arrested by officials of Napier police station in 2013.
The MQM leaders and 200 unknown party workers were named in 23 FIRs in which the complainants alleged that the accused had attended a public gathering and facilitated the MQM chief in his speech against the security agencies on July 12 last year.
It may be added that Altaf Hussain had accused the paramilitary Rangers of torturing and killing his party workers in ongoing targeted operation against criminals in the city. Several cases were also registered against him at different police stations under terrorism laws over a speech criticising the military establishment.
