{"id":125374,"date":"2026-05-06T12:19:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T07:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=125374"},"modified":"2026-05-06T12:19:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T07:19:19","slug":"court-grants-bail-to-bnp-m-chief-akhtar-mengal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125374\/","title":{"rendered":"Court grants bail to BNP-M chief Akhtar Mengal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>QUETTA(National Times)-  An anti-terrorism court (ATC) here on Tuesday granted bail to Balochistan National Party (BNP) chief and former chief minister Sardar Akhtar Mengal, marking a significant development in a<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1972531\">\u00a0case\u00a0<\/a>tied to a political rally held last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Judge Muhammad Ali Mubeen approved Mengal\u2019s bail application after listening to arguments from both sides. The court ordered his release against a surety bond of Rs50,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The BNP leader personally appeared before the court and remained present throughout the proceedings. His legal team, including advocates Sajid Tareen and Agha Hassan Baloch, argued in fav\u00adour of granting bail. The case stems from a First Information Report (FIR) registered against Mengal in connection with a rally at Shahwani Stadium last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking to reporters, the BNP chief struck a critical tone, offering a pointed assessment of the province\u2019s political climate. He said sarcastically that the situation in Balochistan was \u201cnormal,\u201d while alleging that key decisions are made by forces \u201cfrom above\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He added that electoral processes lack independence, adding that the same powers oversee both the conduct and outcomes of elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>QUETTA(National Times)- An anti-terrorism court (ATC) here on Tuesday granted bail to Balochistan National Party (BNP) chief and former chief minister Sardar Akhtar Mengal, marking a significant development in a\u00a0case\u00a0tied to a political rally held last year. Judge Muhammad Ali Mubeen approved Mengal\u2019s bail application after listening to arguments from both sides. The court ordered [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Court grants bail to BNP-M chief Akhtar Mengal - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125374\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Court grants bail to BNP-M chief Akhtar Mengal - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"QUETTA(National Times)- An anti-terrorism court (ATC) here on Tuesday granted bail to Balochistan National Party (BNP) chief and former chief minister Sardar Akhtar Mengal, marking a significant development in a\u00a0case\u00a0tied to a political rally held last year. Judge Muhammad Ali Mubeen approved Mengal\u2019s bail application after listening to arguments from both sides. The court ordered [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125374\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-06T07:19:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-06T07:19:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-5.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125374\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125374\/\",\"name\":\"Court grants bail to BNP-M chief Akhtar Mengal - Nation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125374\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125374\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-5.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-06T07:19:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-06T07:19:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125374\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125374\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125374\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-5.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-5.png\",\"width\":670,\"height\":370},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125374\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Court grants bail to BNP-M chief Akhtar Mengal\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"Nation\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\",\"name\":\"humza Jahangir\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"humza Jahangir\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/author\/humza\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Court grants bail to BNP-M chief Akhtar Mengal - Nation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125374\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Court grants bail to BNP-M chief Akhtar Mengal - Nation","og_description":"QUETTA(National Times)- An anti-terrorism court (ATC) here on Tuesday granted bail to Balochistan National Party (BNP) chief and former chief minister Sardar Akhtar Mengal, marking a significant development in a\u00a0case\u00a0tied to a political rally held last year. 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