Tariq Saeed
Peshawar
The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday granted bail to a firebrand leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F (JUI-F) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter Mufti Kifayatullah facing charges of speaking against the state institutions. A division bench of the PHC’s Mansehra circuit ordered the authorities to release the cleric who was detained in Haripur Jail.
Mufti Kifayatullah was arrested from Islamabad on Sunday last, the day his party started the Azadi March from Karachi, for making inflammatory statements against the state institutions. The verdict was given on a bail petition submitted prior by JUIF demanding the release of their political leader. Mufti Kifayatullah’s arrest was challenged in the court of law on October 29.
The arrest had been made under clause 3 of the maintenance of public order (MPO) ordinance and was challenged in the Abbottabad high court by the lawyers of the JUI leader.
The clause states, “Government, if satisfied that with a view to preventing any person from acting in any manner prejudicial to public safety or the maintenance of public order, it is necessary so to do, may, by an order in writing, direct the arrest and detention in such custody as may be prescribed under sub-section (7), of such person for such period as may, subject to the other provisions of this section.
