KARACHI: Jailed mayor of Karachi and Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Waseem Akhtar moved on Thursday the court for ball in a hate speech case.

Mr Akhtar has been named in a case which appeared to be the second last in which he has yet to obtain bail.

The case was registered at the Site Superhighway police station for allegedly facilitating and listening to a `hate speech` of his party founder Altaf Hussain last year.

The city mayor through his lawyer Khawaja Naveed Ahmed moved a prearrest bail application before the administrative judge of antiterrorism courts, Karachi.

The counsel contended in the application that his client had obtained ball in nearly all cases and likely to be released soon, but the police had not shown him arrested yet in the present case.

The lawyer expressed the apprehension that upon the possible release of his client from prison, the police might arrest him again in this case.

He argued that the applicant was framed in the case since he was not present during the speech, adding that the FIR was lodged with a delay of 14 months.

The counsel further maintained that the court had already granted pre-arrest bail to another MQM leader Khawaja Izharul Hasan in the case and sought bail for Mr Akhtar on identical grounds.

The administrative judge sent the bail application to ATC-I for disposal.

According to the prosecution, the FIR was registered in August this year on the complaint of a citizen who contended that he watched an alleged anti-state telephonic speech of MQM founder on TV inJuly last year and the party leaders were among the audience. The case was lodged under multiple sections of anti-state offences.

Mr Akhtar along with three other pollticians landed in prison on July 19 when an ATC dismissed his pre-arrest bail application in the case related to the treatment of alleged terrorists and gangsters at former federal minister Dr Asim Hussain`s hospital.

The applicant`s lawyer said that the city mayor was booked in 39 cases and he had so far obtained bail in 37 cases while the order on his bail in alleged terrorists` treatment case had already been reserved for pronouncement till Nov 16.

This is the last case against him in which the police had named the applicant in the FIR, but did not show him arrested yet, he added.

Factory worker awarded death penalty in murder case A sessions court on Thursday sentenced a factory worker to death for killing his colleague over a monetary dispute in Ibrahim Haideri five years ago.

Yusuf Barni was found guilty of stabbing Mukhtar Ahmed, his colleague and roommate, to death in November 2011.

Additional district and sessions judge (Malir) Shafi Mohammad Pirzada handed down the capital sentence after recording evidence of witnesses and concluding arguments from both sides.

The court, however, ruled that the sentence was subjected to confirmation of the high court as required under Section 374 of the criminal procedure code.

According to the prosecution, the factory workers, Ahmed and Barni, resided in a rented room along with Arif and Bilal, the eyewitnesses in the case.