PESHAWAR: A single-member Peshawar High Court bench on Thursday granted an interim transit bail to three PTI election ticket aspirants from the Punjab province in different cases, including those registered in the province over violent protests on May 9.

Chief Justice Mohammad Ibrahim Khan directed the three, including Saeed Ahmad Sindhu, Nadeem Abbas and Malik Kiramat, to appear before the relevant Punjabcourts by Dec 30 observing that non-compliance would render the court`s order ineffective.

The court also directed the petitioners to submit two surety bonds of Rs50,000 each to its additional registrar (judicial).

It, however, allowed them to deposit the `surety amount` as they insisted that they had no acquaintances here to present the required surety bonds for transit bail.

Lawyers Syed Mansoor Salam and Kashif Awan appeared for the petitioners and said that their clients were the likely candidates of the PTI for the Feb 8 general elections in different national and provincial assembly constituencies.

They said that the petitioners were `victimised` on political grounds and were implicated in concocted cases.The counsel said Saeed Ahmad had been declared as accused in a May 9 violence case registered at Lahore`s Sarwar Road police station on May 9 under the Pakistan Penal Code and Anti-Terrorism Act.

They added that petitioner Nadeem Abbas was named in an FIR registered at the police station of the anti-corruption establishment in Lahore on Nov 16, 2023, under different provisions of the PPC and Prevention of Corruption Act.

The lawyers said that petitioner Malik Kiramat was declared an accused in a case registered over May 9 protests in the Punjab`s capital.

They claimed that their clients were falsely implicated in those cases and that they would be arrested by the police to stop them from filling nominationpapers to contest next elections.

The counsel insisted that the implication of petitioners in those cases was based on mala fide intent and ulterior motives.

BAIL PLEA REJECTED: A bench consisting of Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Justice Sahibzada Asadullah rejected the plea of former PTI lawmaker from Punjab Ali Asghar Chaudhryfor the grant of protective bail in a case registered against him in Lahore.

As the petitioner a former MPA is currently out of the country, the bench observed that his plea couldn`t be accepted.

As the bench wondered why the petitioner didn`t appear before it and where he was, his lawyer said that his client had gone to Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah.

He said that the law-enforce-ment agencies had been making efforts to arrest the petitioner in concocted cases, including the one registered in Lahore.

The counsel contended that his client feared arrest, so he had approached the high court for getting protective bail so that he could approach the relevant court in Punjab.

The bench asked him from which airport the petitioner flew out of the country. The lawyer replied that his client had gone abroad from Lahore`s airport.

The bench observed that the petitioner belonged to the capital of Punjab and went abroad from there and therefore, he should approach the Lahore High Court.

Justice Ibrahim observed that had the petitioner belonged to the province, the court would havelookedintohispetition.