SHC issues notice to NAB on Sharjeel’s bail extension plea

Adjourns hearing of Dr Asim Hussain’s bail application as a judge excuses himself

The Sindh High Court (SHC) issued a notice to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Sharjeel Memon’s application for extending his transitory bail in a corruption reference.

Memon, former provincial information minister of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), has been in London ever since law enforcement agencies launched a crackdown against corrupt politicians and bureaucrats.

He told the SHC through his counsel that NAB had booked him in a false corruption reference while he was out of the country, and that the bureau had not issued him a call-up notice or provided any information beforehand.

He mentioned that NAB had issued him a call-up notice, despite being out of the country, in a reference pertaining to illegal adjustment and consolidation of thousands of acres in Malir.

Memon’s counsel told the SHC that the former minister was granted a transitory protective bail until December 26 to surrender before the trial court in an advertisement scam of Rs5 billion, while NAB was probing illegal allotment of government land in Malir.

The counsel said the PPP leader was prepared to return home but could not travel at present because of an ailment, adding that Memon sought a month’s extension in his transitory bail in the two cases so he could safely return to the country and surrender before the trial court.

The court issued a notice to the deputy prosecutor general of NAB and adjourned the hearing of the application until December 30.

The SHC had earlier ordered forfeiture of 50 per cent of surety amount (Rs1.5 million) deposited for Memon’s protective bail “to discourage him and others from misusing the extraordinary relief of protective bail” as his counsel sought extension of his bail for the fourth consecutive time.

The court had extended his protective bail until December 26 but enhanced the surety amount to Rs4 million, observing that surety of the former minister would be automatically forfeited if he failed to surrender before the trial court within the stipulated time. The SHC made it clear that barring exceptional circumstances, no further extension would be allowed.

NAB had filed a reference against Memon, information department officials and representatives of advertising agencies for committing corruption of more than Rs5 billion in the awarding of advertisements of the provincial government’s awareness campaigns in the electronic media.

 

Dr Asim’s bail plea

The SHC also adjourned the hearing of a bail application filed by former federal minister Dr Asim Hussain as a judge of the court’s two-member bench excused himself from the hearing.

The bench headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar adjourned the hearing as Justice Adnan-ul-Karim Memon observed that the matter should not be placed before him.

Former petroleum minister Hussain and others have been accused of fraudulent allotment and illegal encroachment of state land through breach of trust, money laundering and extending undue favours to handpicked fertiliser cartels through illegal and unjustified curtailment of gas for exploitative price hike and black marketing and derangement of load management priority between 2010 and 2013 causing losses to the national exchequer and the public of more than Rs450 billion.

A NAB representative insisted on the petitioner’s guilt and rejected the claim that he was politically victimised.