ISLAMABAD    -     The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Fri­day restrained the police and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) from ar­resting Murad Saeed leader of Paki­stan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) and former federal minister.

A single bench of IHC comprising Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir con­ducted hearing of the former federal minister’s petition requesting the court to provide the details of the cases registered against and prevent his arrest.

Besides barring the police and FIA, the bench also directed them to pro­vide the details of the cases registered against the PTI leader and deferred the hearing of the case for one week. During the hearing, Saeed’s Advocate Sher Afzal Marwat appeared before the court and requested the court to provide the details of the cases registered against his client and the details of the ongoing inquiry and investigation in other institutions including the FIA. He also requested the court that Murad should be pre­vented from being arrested until the decision is taken on the application.

After hearing his arguments, the IHC bench directed the respondent that no action should be taken against the petitioner until the next hearing. Justice Arbab said that the parties would be called and asked regard­ing the security of the PTI leader and then, an appropriate order will be issued. In this regard, the IHC bench also issued notices to the police and FIA and directed them to provide the details of the cases filed against Mu­rad Saeed by next week.

The former federal minister ap­proached the IHC praying the court to provide details of the cases registered against him, avoid arrest and provi­sion of security. In his petition, the PTI leader said that the interior minister was hurling threats at him publicly. He added that his security has been with­drawn despite serious security con­cerns. He filed the petition through his lawyer Shef Afzal and cited the federation, Islamabad police chief and the Director General (DG) of FIA as re­spondents. In the petition, he request­ed the court that an order should be given to provide the details of the cases registered against him and the details of ongoing inquiries and inves­tigations in other institutions includ­ing FIA should also be sought. 

According to the petitioner, PTI protested against Imran Khan’s re­moval from office and thousands of PTI workers were arrested. He stated that the homes of PTI work­ers have been raided. He further said that it has come to his knowl­edge through the media that cases have been registered at different police stations in Islamabad at the requests of Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) workers. 

He further said that the banned TTP (Tehrik-e-Talban Pakistan) is threatening him for holding a suc­cessful peace rally in Swat against militants but his security has been withdrawn despite serious security concerns.