SHC grants protective bail to Zulfiqar Mirza

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday granted protective bail to former Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Zulfiqar Mirza in criminal cases registered against him for allegedly attacking a police station and forcing shutdown of markets in Badin district.

A division bench headed by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi approved the bail for Mirza for a sum of Rs100,000 till May 6.

The court directed him to appear before the bench and also issued notices to the provincial home secretary, provincial police chief, DIGs of Hyderabad, Karachi East, South, and Malir districts, Badin police station’s SHO, and others to respond to the application.

Earlier today, Mirza in an exclusive interview to Geo News said he was waiting for Fehmida Mirza’s signal to turn himself over to the police.

Mirza futher said his wife Fehmida Mirza was handling the situation as she had a better understanding and experience. “Till now there is consensus between her, myself, my lawyers and workers that we should offer our arrest and not fight the law.”

The former home minister added that as soon as he received Fehmida Mirza’s signal he would take out a rally with his supporters and go to Hyderabad where they would surrender before the law.

“I welcome these FIRs because the people I was trying to expose for the last few months have shown their face to the entire nation,” Mirza said.

Meanwhile, a strike was observed in Golarchi town following the registration of the case against Zulfiqar Mirza at a police station in his hometown Badin.

Badin was on edge the previous day when Mirza, along with hundreds of supporters and gunmen, broke into the Model Police Station and asked DSP Badin Abdul Qadir Samoon to register a case against PPP MNA Sardar Kamal Khan Chang and police officers for acting against his men.

Police had arrested Mirza's aide Nadeem Mughal on Sunday but he was freed by his is supporters.

Shortly after the incident, Mirza and his gunmen forced shopkeepers to shut down their businesses in Badin city. Video footage showed the enraged former home minister barge into the police station, break the glass table in the deputy superintendent's office, and hurling abuses at him.

On the complaint of a local trader, a case was later registered against Mirza, 21 of his aides and several unidentified men under Anti-Terrorism Act on charges of attacking a police station and forcibly shutting down markets in the district.

The situation was still tense in different parts of Badin as shops and trade centres remained closed in Golarchi today. Unidentified men burned tires at different points of the Badin-Karachi highway.

The local administration has deployed a large contingent of police personnel on the road leading up to Mirza farm.