KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday extended the interim pre-arrest bail given to Pakistan Peoples Party MNA Jam Abdul Karim in the Nazim Jokhio murder case till April 11.
The bail will enable the PPP MNA to take part in the voting on a no-confidence motion against Prime Miniter Imran Khan in the National Assembly.
A single judge bench headed by Justice Omar Sial directed the lawmaker to deposit a surety bond of Rs100,000.
The lawyer for PPP MNA argued that the final charge sheet of the case has not been filed before any court and is still being vetted at prosecutor general office.
It may be recalled that on March 25, a division bench of SHC had granted a 10-day protective bail to the MNA. The PPP lawmaker, who was in Dubai, through his attorney had moved the SHC seeking remedy to appear before the trial court.
His lawyer had expressed the apprehension that the MNA might be arrested upon his return and sought protection.
A few days later, the counsel for MNA again approached the SHC for extension in his bail and also sought contempt proceedings against interior minister and others. However, the two-judge SHC bench headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro had dismissed the plea. Young Nazim Jokhio was found murdered at the Malir farmhouse of PPP MPA Jam Awais in November last year.
The MPA along with his MNA brother Jam Karim and others has been booked for allegedly torturing Nazim to death as he had tried to prevent his foreign guests from hunting houbara bustard.
Police have named the detained MPA and four others as accused in a charge sheet and shown the MNA as an absconding suspect in the case. –Agencies
