SHC suspends sentence of aged telecom company director in corruption case

The Sindh High Court has suspended the sentence of a former director of a telecom company in a corruption reference pertaining to breach of trust and cheating public at large.

Ahmed Jamil Ansari, the director of a private cellular mobile operator company, was sentenced to seven years in prison by an accountability court in a corruption reference pertaining to offence of criminal breach of trust, cheating public at large and causing loss to the public exchequer to the tune of Rs5.64 billion.

A counsel for the appellant during the hearing of the appeal explained the jail roll under which he had served out four-year sentence out of seven years, including remission. He submitted that the appellant was 82 years old and a patient of various diseases.

He requested the high court to suspend the sentence of the appellant till a decision of the appeal which was likely to take time.

A special prosecutor of the National Accountability Bureau opposed the application submitting that the appellant was convicted on January 27 last year and one year had not been completed however as per the statutory provision, he would be entitled to bail after 20 days.

A division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Salahuddin Panhwar after hearing the arguments observed that the appellant was 82 years old and also suffering from different ailments in addition to the fact that he had approximately undergone more than half of his imprisonment.

The high court observed that the hearing of the appeal was likely to take time, due to which the sentence awarded to Ansari may be suspended.

The SHC directed the applicant to be released on bail subject to his furnishing a surety in sum of Rs1 million to the satisfaction of the Nazir of the court. The bench also directed that the appellant shall surrender his passport with the Nazir of the court and shall be entitled to travel abroad with the permission of this court.

According to the prosecution, the appellant along with other co-accused being director of the private company was involved in cheating public at large by issuing calling cards worth Rs120 million but neither the cards were activated nor amount was returned to the public.

They were also accused of siphoning of funds abroad on the pretext of phony sales approximately amounting to Rs2 billion, misuse of company funds for purchase of properties from benamidars amounting to Rs500 million and cheating the Pakistan Telecommunication Limited and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority in default of their liability worth Rs2 billion.