SHC grants oil company’s chief pre-arrest bail

JJVL chief permitted to travel abroad for business purposes

The high court granted pre-arrest protective bail to the director of a fuel company in a National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) corruption reference pertaining to misuse and sale of fuel meant for defence aviation authority to private industries.

Syed Mohammad Mazhar Hussain, chief of Aerolube (Pvt) Ltd, had moved the court against NAB’s call up notice issued on February 16 with regard to his role in misuse of fuel meant for defence aviation authorities.

The investigative agency was probing complaints filed against the corruption alleging that private entities were being provided with a higher proportion of fuel instead of the defence authorities, causing a loss to the national exchequer.

The petitioner’s counsel, however, submitted that his client was falsely implicated in the inquiry as had nothing to do with any of the offences or acts of omission.

He maintained that the petitioner was willing to join the investigation but had to be assured of not getting arrested. Whjich apprehended arrest at hands of the NAB authorities.

SHC’s division bench headed by Justice Syed Mohammad Farooq Shah after hearing the arguments of the counsel granted pre-arrest protective bail to the petitioner and directed him to deposit his passport with  the court’s Nazir. Deputy attorney general NAB was also issued a notice to file comments for confirmation of bail or otherwise by March 1.

JJVL chief allowed to go abroad

The SHC allowed the chief executive officer of the Jamshoro Joint Venture Limited (JJVL), a co-accuse of Dr Asim Hussain in a multibillion rupee corruption reference, to undertake business trips, on Monday.

The director was said to have granted the bail after submitting Rs2 million as surety. Dr Hussain and other were booked by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for alleged wrongful awarding of contracts to private gas company. Besides Dr Hussain, Iqbal Z Ahmed and other officials including former managing director and acting general manager of the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) were also booked in the case.

The investigators alleged that the private company was allowed to process gas from five fields in lower Sindh without conducting an open auction, signing agreements and other necessary procedure required in the law. This, the investigators claimed caused a loss of Rs17.34 billion to the national exchequer. 

The petitioner’s counsel maintained that his client, out on protective bail by the court, had to travel to the Europe, Middle East, Singapore, Chine and South Korea for business purpose, should hence be allowed to travel abroad from February 19 to March 31. The NAB’s counsel did not oppose the application.