Court grants pre-arrest bail to Lal Masjid cleric

The court granted pre-arrest bail to Abdul Aziz in a criminal case against the surety of Rs50,000.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Raja Asif Mehmood granted bail to the cleric till February 25, who appeared before the court this morning.

The court yesterday, had refused to grant pre-arrest bail to Abdul Aziz in the cases and ordered the police to produce him before the court on Tuesday (today).

The cleric, speaking to the media after securing bail, Aziz said he was ready to forgive former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf and other characters of the Lal Masjid incident.

He said he will persuade some of his family members and will announce the forgiveness publicly. He said he did not make any deal with anyone regarding the case.

The cleric’s counsel, however, expressed his opposition to Aziz’s statement to pardon the former military ruler during his media talk. “I will register a case against Aziz if he pardoned those involved in the Lal Masjid operation,” Tariq Asad told the media.

Musharraf had ordered a military operation on July 3, 2007 against the mosque administration for challenging the writ of the state.