Court approves Dost Mazari’s bail in land case

LAHORE (INP): An anti-corruption court on Thursday approved the bail of former Punjab Assembly deputy speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari in a land encroachment case registered against him by the provincial Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE).
The court issued the ruling on Mazari’s bail after it had reserved a verdict on it a day earlier following the completion of the lawyer’s arguments. The court, while issuing the bail, also directed the Punjab MPA to submit surety bonds worth Rs100,000.
In the last hearing, Mazari’s counsel had urged the judge to grant bail to his client, arguing the case was “politically motivated.” Following the completion of Mazari’s counsel’s arguments, the judge directed the public prosecutor to ensure his presence in the court for cross-examination. On Friday, November 4, a district court in Lahore sent the former deputy speaker of the Punjab Assembly to jail on judicial remand.
The court took this action after rejecting Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) Punjab’s request for extending the remand. Mazari was presented in court after the completion of his two-day remand. Last month, Punjab’s ACE arrested the former deputy speaker of in an alleged land encroachment case.
Confirming the arrest, his cousin Shabab Mazari said that the disgruntled PTI MPA was arrested when he was visiting his ailing grandfather Balakh Sher Mazari at a private hospital.
Speaking to media about the deputy speaker’s arrest, PTI’s dissident Member of the National Assembly Sardar Riaz Mehmood Khan Mazari said: “My father Balakh Sher Mazari has been unwell for 15 days. Dost Muhammad Mazari came to visit my father at the hospital.” The MNA revealed that the ACE officials came to arrest Mazari at the hospital without any warrant or first information report (FIR).