Court grants bail to controversial Swat cleric Maulana Sufi Muhammad

PESHAWAR - The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Monday granted bail to Maulana Sufi Muhammad, chief of the banned Tanzim Nifaz Shariat-i-Muhammadi (TNSM) in sedition cases after he spent more than seven years behind bars.

A single bench headed by Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth issued the bail to TNSM chief, who is the father-in-law of the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Swat head Maulana Fazlullah.

The bail was granted on statutory and medical grounds as Sufi through his counsel Fida Gul claimed that he should be released "as his health is deteriorating with each passing day."

“The prosecution has failed to produce witnesses in more than seven years against Sufi Muhammad in the courts,” the lawyer argued, adding that the plaintiff was an aged person of 93 years.

He continued that as per the medical reports, doctors of the prison’s hospital had stated that treatment of Maulana Sufi Muhammad was not possible in the prison. The lawyer claimed that he was almost in an unconscious condition on his bed.

The high court in its brief order asked the TNSM chief to secure his release by furnishing two bail bonds worth Rs700,000 each.

According to jail superintendent, Sufi is currently imprisoned in the Peshawar Central Jail and he would be released after fulfilling a few legal formalities.

The TNSM chief was arrested in 2009 when the final phase of a military operation against militants was launched in the Malakand region.

A number of cases were registered against the cleric, however, in each case, witnesses against him had either died or could not be traced, Dawn News reported.

In 2009 when a peace deal was inked with his proscribed organisation, he was exercising much influence and had even stopped regular courts from functioning there.

Maulana Sufi Muhammad had been indicted in the cases heard by the district court at Mingora, Swat district, for treason over his speech against democracy and the state at the Grassy Ground in Swat in 2009.

In the speech, he had termed democracy and the then government as un-Islamic and unconstitutional.

In 2015, it emerged that Sufi Muhammad had issued an informal decree against Mulla Fazlullah-led Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), declaring that members of the banned outfit lack the traits essential for a Muslim.

“They [TTP] do not come up to the definition of Momin and Muslim set by the Holy Prophet (PBUH),” he stated in a written ‘will’.