KARACHI: Court rejected plea seeking physical remand of leader of opposition in Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh in land-grabbing case. Court sent Sheikh into judicial custody while directing anti-encroachment officials to submit case challan at next hearing. Sheikh a PTI leader has been under arrest for over a month for allegedly grabbing 25 acres of government land.

He alleges that he was tortured and strangled in detention. During hearing, court inquired from investigation officer on why he held Sheikh by his collar. He responded in negative and said that he could only grab Sheikh’s shirt to save him as he was falling. Sheikh’s lawyer maintained that FIR against politician was lodged by a tapedar and there is not a single private witness in case. “My client is being linked to land grabbers. He is arrested without Assembly Speaker’s permission,” he said. While giving arguments, prosecutor said that a notice was served to Haleem after registration of case against him but he didn’t cooperate in investigation. He requested court to remand Haleem into police custody for investigating strong evidence against him. A video of Sheikh from hearing surfaced on Twitter where he was seen alleging that he was tortured and strangled in jail.

Haleem Adil was arrested from Jamshoro. This was second time in same month that ACE arrested Sheikh in case. ACE had arrested Sheikh on July 6 from Lahore, but later, Lahore High Court ruled detention of opposition leader in Sindh Assembly to be “unlawful” and granted him protective bail. 

Published in The Daily National Courier, August, 31 2022

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