March 27, 2026
By Rehan Piracha
LAHORE: Dadu police have registered a fresh case of attempted murder and assault on a public servant against former Member of the National Assembly and Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) leader Ali Wazir, who is already in judicial custody on a sedition charge filed hours after his release from Sukkur jail on bail on March 16.
Wazir’s counsel, Imdad Hyder Solangi, told Voicepk on Friday (March 27) that he learnt of the new case the previous night. According to Solangi, the FIR was registered on the direction of Dadu Senior Superintendent of Police Saud Magsi shortly before his transfer from the district. “The fresh FIR falls under the jurisdiction of an ordinary court triable by the District and Sessions Judge in Dadu,” Solangi explained. The FIR, bearing number 40/2026, was registered by B-Section Police Station in Dadu on March 17, a copy of which is available with Voicepk.
What the FIR alleges
Complainant Sajjad Hussain Zaour, an Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police, states in the FIR that on March 16, 2026, he was on routine patrol with other police personnel when they reached Jam Petrol Pump near Indus Highway Road. There, he states, they observed approximately 25 to 27 individuals — faces uncovered and carrying PTM flags — blocking the road and chanting anti-government slogans demanding the release of Ali Wazir.
According to the FIR, the protesters were also preventing vehicles and members of the public from passing through. When police asked them to disperse and surrender, the accused allegedly refused, claiming Wazir had instructed them to create disorder as a condition for his release and to prevent his future arrest.
The complainant states that additional police personnel were summoned to disperse the crowd. In response, he alleges, the accused opened fire on police with intent to kill. The officers retaliated, upon which the accused fled the scene.
Ali Wazir has been charged under Sections 324 (attempt to murder), 353 (assault on a public servant), 186 (obstructing a public servant), 341 (wrongful restraint), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting armed with a deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), and 109 (abetment) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
Physical custody bid rejected
On Friday, Investigating Officer Ayaz Ahmed Gopang appeared before Anti-Terrorism Court Judge Ameer Ali Mahesar and requested physical custody of Wazir for interrogation. The judge rejected the request, ordering instead that any required investigation be conducted inside the jail.
Solangi said the fresh FIR — which he termed false — would be challenged through a quashment petition before the Sindh High Court’s Circuit Court in Hyderabad. He confirmed that he had met Wazir at the district jail in Dadu, and that his client appeared to be in good spirits.
Second case in 24 hours
This is the second FIR registered against Wazir since his release on March 16. The first — FIR No. 93/2026 — was lodged by ASI Nazar Ali Laghari of PS A-Section Dadu at 9:30 pm on the same evening he walked free from Sukkur Central Prison. That case invokes Sections 123-A, 124-A, and 124-B of the Pakistan Penal Code alongside Sections 6 and 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, and contains near-identical allegations of road blockage, armed protesters, and firing on police.
Wazir had filed a constitutional petition before the Sindh High Court’s Sukkur Bench challenging the first FIR. The petition, bearing number 256/2026 and filed under Article 199 of the Constitution, seeks the quashment of FIR No. 93/2026 and requests the court to restrain police across Sindh from registering further FIRs against him. A bench comprising Justice Amjid Bohio and Justice Ali Hyder Ada is scheduled to hear the matter on March 30.
A protracted legal battle
Wazir’s release on March 16 had come after a legal battle spanning nearly two years. His most recent incarceration began in August 2024. Despite being granted bail in his final active case — a cybercrime matter — on March 10, bureaucratic delays kept him detained for an additional week. The constitutional bench of the Sindh High Court, headed by Justices Arbab Ali Hakro and Riazat Ali Sehar, ultimately ruled that holding Wazir without a pending trial or investigation violated Article 9 of the Constitution, declaring his detention “illegal, unlawful, and unconstitutional.”
He walked free from Sukkur Central Prison between 5:30 and 6:00 pm. By 9:30 pm, he was in custody again. According to his constitutional petition, Wazir had accompanied relatives and friends to a private home for an iftar dinner when a large contingent of police and plainclothes officers arrived in five or six vehicles, forcibly entered the premises, and took him away while inflicting what the petition describes as “severe torture.” Mobile phones were seized, and those present were warned that filing any court application would result in fabricated cases against Wazir and his family. Video of the incident circulated widely on social media.
A pattern of successive cases
Wazir’s legal team has consistently characterised his detentions as judicially-manufactured. Since 2024, he has faced multiple terrorism and sedition charges across Sindh, along with at least three Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) detention orders spanning Punjab, Sindh, Islamabad, and Balochistan. Each time a court granted bail or struck down a detention order, his lawyers note, a fresh one would follow from a different district.
The outcomes in his previous cases support their account. An Anti-Terrorism Court in Sukkur acquitted him in FIR No. 106/2024 in August 2025 and in FIR No. 18/2025 the following month. FIR No. 93/2025 was returned by an ATC in Naushehro Feroze on the grounds that it lacked the element of terror, and was subsequently cancelled by a civil court, which directed the complainant “to be careful and not violate the settled principle of law.” FIR No. 35/2025 was referred to a cybercrime agency, whose inquiry officer concluded on March 3, 2026, that Wazir “did not commit the offence as provided by PECA Act 2005” — the finding that directly prompted the High Court to order his release.
His constitutional petition describes the first Dadu FIR as based on “identical and fabricated allegations” intended “solely to prolong his incarceration and suppress his political activities.”
Health concerns
Serious concerns persist about Wazir’s health. He suffers from high blood pressure, diabetes, a chronic heart condition, and kidney disease, requiring continuous access to prescribed medication. His petition flags that denial of medical treatment poses “a serious threat to his life” in violation of Article 9 of the Constitution.
His whereabouts remained unknown for two days following his re-arrest. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) stated that plainclothes officers had “forcibly abducted” Wazir shortly after his release, warning that his unknown whereabouts raised “serious fears for his life and health.” His counsel Solangi wrote to the UN Human Rights Commissioner, warning of “serious and imminent risk to his life” from detention without proper medical access.
Wazir was produced before an Anti-Terrorism Court in Naushehro Feroze on March 19 — two days after his disappearance — following the filing of a habeas corpus petition before the District and Sessions Judge Sukkur and a missing persons petition before the Sindh High Court. The court ordered his transfer to district jail in Dadu on 14-day judicial remand.