A Supreme Court bench on Monday rejected Pakistan People’s Party MNA Mir Hazar Khan Bajrani’s plea for “protective bail” in a vani case in which he, heading a jirga, ordered the handover of five girls to some families to resolve a murder dispute. However, the police of Kashmor, from where the case was reported, did not arrest the MNA despite being present at the court. The Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi bench had already denied Bajrani protective bail. Latif Khosa, counsel for Bajrani, pleaded before the seven-member bench headed by Chief Justice (CJ) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry that his client be granted “protective bail” to file a bail petition with the Sindh High Court (SHC) as he fears the provincial chief minister, his political rival, could prevent his doing so. The court refused to grant the bail and asked the MNA to approach the SHC for this purpose. The CJ said the court could not grant bail to Bajrani just because he was an influential person.