Court grants bail to ARY News anchor Iqrarul Hassan

ARY News anchorperson Syed Iqrarul Hassan, who was arrested over exposing the poor security measures at Sindh Assembly, was produced before a civil judge in City Court.

The court granted bail to Iqrar-ul-Hassan and a member of Sar-e-Aam team Kamran in the two cases under PPC 452 and 188. Earlier, the judge had reserved his verdict in the case.

The court has ordered the anchorperson to submit two surety bonds of Rs. 50,000 each in the court.

Sar-e-Aam host Iqrarul Hassan was produced in the court after being questioned by the investigation officer. Speaking on the occasion, he said that he was handcuffed for showing the truth to the people.

He said that he did not do any corruption nor did he loot the nation.

“I am happy as my child is proud of me,” he said.

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The host of popular program Sar-e-Aam entered the premises of the provincial assembly yesterday with one of his crew members carrying a firearm without any checking by the security personnel deployed at the building.

He asked his crew member to unveil the pistol and show it to Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani, thus stirring up a debate in the House.

Durrani ruled that no one including journalists would be allowed to enter the assembly without undergoing security checks from this point on.

His order was followed by detention of Iqrar and his team as security personnel at the Sindh Assembly encircled the anchor and took him out of the hall. He was arrested by the law enforcement personnel and was moved to Arambagh Police Station.

Politicians, civil society members and general public have expressed solidarity with Iqrar.

Sindh Home Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal has said that the incident of the security breach will be investigated. He also ordered arrest of all those who conducted the sting operation in the assembly.

Two separate FIRs against Sar-e-Aam host were filed with chief security officer of the Sindh Assembly and the station house officer (SHO) Aram Bagh as complainants.

The FIRs included various sections of the Pakistan Penal Code involving the possession of illegal arms, fraud and others. A large number of people have been sitting outside the police station to express solidarity with Iqrar since he was arrested on Friday afternoon.

A Sar-e-Aam team member revealed that a guard deployed at the entrance asked for a ‘favour’ during the sting operation. The team members gave two bottles of perfume and he let the team go to sit in the assembly gallery without security checks.

The guard was apparently pleased when one of the ARY team members introduced himself as Mirpurkhas resident. The security guard responded: “We will let you sit in the gallery not for just 15 minutes. But for an hour. Because you belong to Mirpurkhas.”

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah after the incident said that security responsibility in the assembly lied with speaker. He stonewalled queries regarding arrest of the anchor and left.