Polarized response on PTM legislators’ bail

Peshawar High Court’s Bannu bench on Wednesday accepted the bail pleas of lawmakers Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar in the Kharqamar attack case. Justice Nasir Mehmood, who heard the bail applications of Dawar and Wazir in Bannu, asked the MNAs to report to police once a month. The MNAs have been asked to provide surety bonds worth Rs. 1 million each. “The bench has given us conditional bail,” said Abdul Latif Afridi, the lawyer representing the MNAs, adding that the Anti-Terrorism Law 21-D allows a judge to impose certain conditions on admission to bail. The release of Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar has received a polarized response. While PTM supporters have appreciated that justice has prevailed, a great majority of the people criticized the move for the legislators’ ‘anti-state’ stance.
The two MNAs, who are leaders of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), were initially charged in an FIR registered at the Counter Terro­rism Department (CTD) police station, Bannu, on May 26 after a clash between PTM members and Army personnel near the Kharqamar check post in North Waziristan, which had resulted in the deaths of 13 persons and injuries to several others. Separately, they were charged in the instant case registered on June 7 at the CTD police station, Bannu, after an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded on a road in Doga Macha, North Waziristan, when an Army convoy was passing through the area. The blast had left four Army officials – a lieutenant colonel, a major, a captain and a lance havaldar – martyred.
A Bannu anti-terrorism court last month had granted bail to the PTM leaders in the second case pertaining to the blast in Doga Macha. Both Wazir and Dawar were already in CTD custody at the time of the IED blast, as they had been arrested following the May 26 Kharqamar check post attack. Wazir had been taken into custody the day of the attack, while Dawar surrendered himself to security forces a few days later. Though it is not appropriate to criticize the court’s decisions, those who have been watching the Pashtun Movement leaders’ activities and their acts of inciting the people against the law enforcing agencies. However, the courts give verdicts or grant bails on the basis of the evidence; it means that prosecution failed to prove its case.
Pashtun Tahafuz Movement leader Gulalai Ismail had been named in First Information Reports’ (FIR) in different parts of the country after videos airing comments against the state and its security institutions. There is a perception that PTM leaders want chaos, confusion and bloodshed to revitalize their narrative which lost its strength after FATA’s merger with KP. Shortly after the news of rape and murder of Farishta, PTM leader Gulalai Ismail could clearly be seen spewing venom against the state and its institutions. Two FIRs were registered against PTM’s Gulalai within 24 hours. An FIR was registered against her in Shehzad Town police station and next day a new FIR was lodged in Koral police station for inciting violence against the state.