The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday granted five-days protective bail to Mansha Bomb’s son Tariq Mansha, who was wanted by the Lahore police for illegally grabbing land in Johar Town area.
While hearing the case IHC Judge Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani approved the protective bail for five days, after which the accused will have to approach the trial court.
Suspected land grabber Malik Mansha Ali Khokhar, commonly known as Mansha ‘Bomb’ and his sons are accused of illegally grabbing land in Lahore’s Johar Town vicinity. They were booked earlier this month for attacking a Lahore Development Authority team during an anti-encroachment operation in the area.
Moreover, in a petition filed in the IHC, Tariq said that he came to know about the case against him while he was in Islamabad. He said that he was “unable to request pre-arrest bail in the Lahore High Court since he was not in the city”.
He said that he was “ready to cooperate in the investigation against him but feared that he would be arrested in Lahore”.
While speaking to the media, Tariq claimed that the cases against him and his father were filed at the behest of former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza. He alleged that the PML-N leaders wanted to take over his family’s property.
Earlier, on October 15, Mansha was arrested from the Supreme Court premises after he had gone there to “surrender himself” and also demanded to meet Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar.
Wanted by police in over 80 criminal cases in the provincial capital, Mansha had spent more than four to five hours in the SC premises hoping to meet the CJP in person.
In a letter to the apex court, Mansha wrote that suo motu proceedings had been initiated against him but he was unable to appear before the SC on the date fixed as he was unaware of the proceedings. The letter added that Mansha was living at a different address than the one mentioned on his CNIC.
However, the chief justice did not take the matter up and did not meet Mansha. The suspected land grabber was taken into custody by officials of the Secretariat Police Station.
Earlier, Mansha had told reporters that the Punjab police had added ‘Bomb’ to his name to malign him. He had alleged that he was being victimized due to a political rivalry. Mansha said that he had hidden from the police so that he could appear before CJP, adding that he would wait for the top judge.
He added that he had come to the SC of his own accord so that he could surrender himself for arrest as per the law.
The man has alleged that ‘false cases’ were created against him by former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif after his son contested the election on a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ticket.
On Oct 4, an investigating officer (IO) told the court that the suspects had gone underground since the Supreme Court ordered a crackdown on land grabbers in Johar Town.
The IO asked the court to issue warrants for the arrest of the suspects. The court accepted the request and issued warrants, directing the police to produce them on October 10.