PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and Mardan deputy commissioner to seek their response to a petition of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf central leader Ali Mohammad Khan, challenging his re-arrest in Mardan a day earlier.

A bench consisting of Justice Ijaz Anwar and Justice Fazal Subhan adjourned hearing of the petition to July 27 with the direction that the government should put forward their point of view on the matter.

Advocate Ali Zaman appeared for Ali Mohammad, a former minister of state, and informed the bench that his client was re-arrested for the seventh time onJuly 25 after he was granted bail by a local court in Mardan in a case registered by the anti-corruption establishment (ACE).

He argued that a day earlier in another petition of Ali Muhammad, an additional advocategeneralinformed the courtthat there was no other case pending against him except the one in which he was arrested.

However, he stated that the moment he was granted bail by a court in Mardan, he was re-arrested on the orders of deputy commissioner under section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance.

He said that there was no justification available with the administration to rearrest the petitioner under the MPO.

Justice Ijaz Anwar in a lighter vein remarked that he had earlier told them that any new case would emerge against the petitioner. The bench observed that they (the government) were checking their (petitioner`s) pulse to know how much pressure he could sustain.

Ali Zaman contended that the petitioner was initially arrested on May 11and since then he had been behind bars.

He stated that the petitioner was granted bail in different cases by the relevant courts but he was re-arrested after registration of fresh cases against him.

He pointed out that earlier his detention orders were issued thrice under 3 MPO by the deputy commissioners of Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Peshawar, which were set aside by the relevant high courts.

Similarly, he stated that the petitioner was also charged in two cases registered by ACE in Mardan, wherein he was granted bail by the court.

He said that in the last case registered by ACE, the petitioner was re-arrested on June 27 and his bail plea continued to linger on before the court of special judge for almost a month as the prosecution had not been producing the relevant record.

Meanwhile, a bench consisting of Justice wiqar Ahmad and Justice Mohammad Faheem Wali directed the ACE to provide details of cases pending against former federal minister and PTI leader Sheharyar Afridi.The bench fixed August 2 for next hearing of the petition filed by Sheharyar Afridi, seeking directives of the court for the government to provide him details about the number of cases registered against him in the province.

Barrister Yaseen Raza, an assistant advocate general, informed the bench that Kohat deputy commissioner could not turn up be cause of his engagement in connection with security arrangements for Muharram.

However, he stated that an additional deputy commissioner appeared before the court and said that there was no case registered against the petitioner in Kohat, his native district.

Advocate Arshad Ali appeared for the petitioner and stated that although no FIR was registered against his client in Kohat, yet ACE was registering cases against him.

He said that the petitioner was rearrested multiple times after he was granted bail by relevant courts in different cases. He added that the moment he was granted bail, ACE registered a new case so as to keep him behind bars.