• SC grants bail against two surety bonds worth Rs300,000.
• Rehman was arrested on January 13 on charges of murder.
• Prosecutor was against bail, but SC refused his request.

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court Thursday accepted the bail plea of Maulana Hidayat Ur Rehman, the head of Gwadar’s Haq Do Tehreek, and ordered his release.

Rehman, who is being released on bail after more than four months, was arrested from Gwadar on January 13 on charges of murder.

A three-member SC bench headed by Justice Sardar Tariq Masood and comprising Justice Amin Ud Din Khan and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar heard the case and granted bail against two surety bonds of Rs300,000.

During the course of proceedings, Advocate Kamran Murtaza, the counsel for Rehman, informed the court that the rights movement leader was arrested from court premises.

He said that his client had been incarcerated since December 2022. Upon this, Justice Tariq asked why did he not challenge the arrest from the court premises.

The counsel replied that at the time of Rehman’s arrest, such actions had not been declared illegal by the apex court, adding that the precedent was set following the arrest of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan.

The prosecutor general argued that Rehman should not be granted bail until the main accused was sent on judicial remand.

Yasir Ali, the accused who shot at the slain policeman Majid Johar, had been arrested, he added.

Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar asked if Rehman was accused of aiding and abetting the murder of a police officer. The counsel replied that the facts would be determined during the trial.

He said that his client’s movement was related to the provision of water for the people of Gwadar.

The court, after hearing arguments, rejected the request of the prosecutor general and granted bail to the HDT leader.

The arrest and protests

A heavy police contingent present outside a local court in Gwadar arrested the HDT leader and three others, including Naseeb Nosherwani and Hassan Murad, in January.

The HDT leader was nominated in the first information report (FIR) of the death of a police constable — Yasir Saeed — who was killed by unknown assailants on November 27 during a protest in Gwadar.

The police, in a statement, said a bullet hit the constable in the neck and he died on the spot. Following this, Balochistan Home Minister Ziaullah Langove ordered the police to register a case against the HDT leader.

The FIR, in which Rehman and others were nominated, alleged that the HDT leader provoked and incited people at the protest to pelt stones at government vehicles, following which the people threw stones and shattered the windowpanes of a police officer’s car.

The Gwadar protests, in which the unfortunate incident took place, had a wide range of demands and had been going on for two months under the HDT leadership.

The protestors were demanding a reduction in the number of check posts, easier border trade, and a total end to deep-sea fish trawling in the sea next to Gwadar.