Punjab Assembly deputy speaker gets protective bail in terrorism case

Wasiq Qayyum Abbasi says he wants to appear before relevant court to secure bail

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday granted protective bail to PTI leader and Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Wasiq Qayyum Abbasi in a case registered against him by the Islamabad police under charges of terrorism.

An LHC division bench headed by Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti heard the plea of the PTI leader and granted bail for a week.

Wasiq Abbasi submitted that Islamabad police registered a case against him with mala fide intention and merely to pressurize him and other co-accused to blackmail their party’s leadership.

The petitioner said that no offence was made out against him and there was no direct or indirect evidence against him, but despite all that he was booked in the said case. The deputy speaker said that he was a respectable and law abiding citizen and would suffer if he was arrested. He further said that he enjoyed constitutional and fundamental rights to life, liberty, and honor.

The PTI leader also told the court that the present government wanted to victimize him. He asked the court to grant him protective bail so that he could approach the relevant forum for his bail in the case. After hearing arguments of the petitioner’s counsel, the bench allowed bail to the PTI leader for a week.

The Islamabad police had earlier booked Wasiq Abbasi and others under Section 7AT and other sections of Pakistan Penal Code over charges of attacking the police party on the day the ECP announced verdict in Toshakhana case and disqualified PTI Chairman Imran Khan.