Accepting Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister (CM) Ali Amin Gandapur’s plea, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) housed in Islamabad’s Judicial Complex on Friday granted pre-arrest bail to him until April 17 in lieu of a surety bond of Rs50,000, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Due to the absence of Judge Abual Hasnat Muhammad Zulqarnain, Duty Judge Raja Jawad heard the petition.

Earlier, Gandapur, against whom a case was registered at Ramna police station of Islamabad, filed a pre-arrest bail petition in the court through his lawyer Raja Zahoorul Hassan. 

In the petition, it was stated that the chief minister was implicated in a false case only to malign him, and that the text of the FIR was concocted and a lie. “The petitioner is a law-abiding citizen, with no criminal record,” read the petition.

Furthermore, it stated that the plaintiff was ready to cooperate with the investigators. “Therefore, it is prayed to the court to accept his pre-arrest bail application.”

Later talking to the media outside the Judicial Complex, Gandapur said that even then Pakistan’s ambassador to the USA Asad Majeed had confirmed that the US cipher did exist. “Whether it was a conspiracy or an interference; being a patriotic Pakistani it is not acceptable to us,” he said categorically.

KP CM said that the US Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu had lied before the Congress committee. “Asad Majeed too had been summoned for the testimony,” he demanded.

Truth of the matter was, Gandapur went on to say, that the former prime minister and ex-PTI chairman Imran Khan was handed down prison term in the cipher case. “If the cipher did not exist, then why he was given punishment,” he asked.

Enumerating the achievements of his government in KP in a short time, the chief minister said that his government had relaunched Sehat Card in the province. “The Center has to give us our money, which is our right.”

Refusing to accept the present government as legitimate, Gandapur said it had been formed by stealing the people’s mandate from the PTI. “It is unconstitutional,” he said and wondered how the government which had no legitimacy could deliver.

Reporter: Hashir Ahsan