An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi has again ordered the arrest of Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM)-linked MNA Ali Wazir, who is already incarcerated at Karachi Central Jail in a separate sedition case.
Wazir faces five separate cases and will seemingly remain detained despite being granted bail on one of these cases in November of last year. He has been charged in four sedition cases registered in Karachi and a similar case in Miran Shah, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Wazir has been held at Central Jail Karachi since December 2020.
Last month, the ATC-XII had requested verification from the Supreme Court regarding Wazir’s post-arrest bail, granted on November 30, 2021. On February 4th, the court received confirmation of his bail, but the MNA had yet to be released.
On Monday, the court the ATC-II again ordered for the arrest of Wazir. Also named in the case are PTM leaders Alam Zaib, Muhammad Tahir and Noorullah Tareen. The four were booked on charges of resorting to violence, delivering incendiary speeches and defaming state institutions by the Sohrab Goth police in Karachi in February 2019.
PTM leaders Zaib and Tahir, out on bail, have pleaded not guilty and will stand trial. Tareen has been declared an absconder by the court.
Workers and supporters of the PTM have staged a sit-in outside the Sindh Assembly in Karachi demanding Wazir’s release; the demonstration is in its third day as of Tuesday. Relatives of missing persons in Balochistan, including Mama Abdul Qadeer Baloch and Abdul Wahab Baloch, also met with PTM leaders to express solidarity.
