PTM leader Ali Wazir: The face of dissent in Pakistan

Islamabad [Pakistan], December 24 : Pushtoon Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) leader Muhammad Ali Wazir is lately becoming an icon of the non-violent movement in Pakistan, one who speaks for people of the tribal areas and fights for their rights, the Voice of Vienna reported.
PTM leader Wazir, who first lost as an independent candidate from South Waziristan in the 2013 general election, was later elected in the National Assembly as a member of the lower house of the Parliament in the next general election in 2018.
According to Voice of Vienna, PTM, a popular mass movement shot to prominence in 2018 after the extrajudicial killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud in Karachi.
"The malevolence in the state's violation of Ali Wazir's right to due process is plain to see. He was incarcerated four years ago on sedition charges in connection with a controversial speech he made at a Karachi rally. Several cases along the same lines have been filed against him, and continue to be filed, to ensure that liberty for Wazir remains out of reach," the report added.
It said one court after another has acquitted Wazir, but legal proceedings against him kept coming.
An Anti-Terrorism Court in Karachi cleared him of the original charge in November this year. However, he is still facing trial in three similar cases in Karachi, as well as one in Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa (KP) Miranshah.
"The state's determination to keep him behind bars against all norms of justice should have had anyone with democratic pretensions concerned and up in arms," the Voice of Vienna report said.
On Thursday, the Sindh High Court (SHC) issued notice to the provincial prosecutor general on an application filed by Ali Wazir against the denial of his shifting to Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa (KP), The News International newspaper reported.
He submitted in the application that an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi last month rejected an application filed by KP police who sought his custody in connection with a criminal case registered at Dera Ismail Khan.
Wazir's counsel argued that the ATC rejected the KP police's application on the ground that the PTM leader should not be transferred from Karachi to KP unless pending cases against him before the court had been concluded.
His counsel submitted that the trial court order was illegal and without any jurisdiction as the applicant was on bail in all three pending cases in Karachi.
Wazir's counsel said the PTM leader was entitled to be shifted to a KP prison which shall facilitate his family, relatives and other persons of his constituency to meet him in prison as he was an MNA from a South Waziristan constituency.