Bail pleas of Dr Asim’s co-accused referred to SHC CJ

The Sindh High Court (SHC) bench hearing the Rs460 billion corruption reference against Dr Asim Hussain and others on Monday referred bail applications of the minister’s co-accused to the SHC chief justice with a plea to fix all the hearings before a single bench.

The interim bail granted to the co-accused was also extended by the court.

Dr Hussain’s accomplices include Abdul Hameed, Ejaz Chaudhry, Safdar Hussain. They have been nominated in the corruption reference by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

On March 5, 2016, the NAB had filed a reference alleging that a private company was allowed to process gas from five fields in the lower Sindh without conducting an open auction. The illegal awarding of the contract had, according to the investigative agency, incurred huge losses to the national exchequer.

Dr Hussain has also been accused of giving an illegal gas connection to the Jamshoro Joint Venture Limited while he was serving as the petroleum minister. The SHC had, on March 28, approved the former petroleum minister’s bail plea in the corruption cases

Commenting on his cases while speaking to the media following the hearing of the JJVL corruption case, he said he was implicated in false cases.

Dr Hussain said he was alleged to have committed corruption of more than Rs462 billion in a reference and that was ironic. He further remarked that he deserved to be given even one percent of this amount so he could give half of the amount to those journalists who had been covering his cases in difficult circumstances.

Earlier, the accountability court said that it would listen to arguments of Dr Hussain’s defence lawyer, Anwar Mansoor, on May 20.

‘Political’ abduction case

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday called in comments from the director general of the Sindh Rangers, provincial police chief and home secretary on a petition seeking information on the whereabouts of an advocate’s son who was allegedly kidnapped on April 22. 

The SHC bench headed by Justice Irfan Saadat Khan took up the petition filed by Zakir Hussain Khaskheli, an advocate of the Supreme Court, who moved the court seeking whereabouts of his missing son, Nadir Ali. 

The petitioner informed the court that his son was working at their land in Taluka Mirwah, District Khairpur, on April 22 when he was kidnapped by people who have been involved in many heinous crimes. 

Khaskheli said the kidnappers demanded Rs1 million and some part of the family’s land as ransom and threatened to kill his son if the ransom demands were not met. 

He alleged that his son was kidnapped on the behest of a Pakistan Peoples Party leader – the party’s Division Khairpur president – and other influential personalities owing to a political rivalry. 

The concerned father told the court that though a kidnapping case had been lodged, the investigating officer was not properly interrogating the matter due to the involvement of political personalities. 

Citing the Sindh Rangers chief, IGP, DIG Sukkur, home secretary and SHO Pir Wasam police station as respondents, the petitioner prayed the court to direct the law enforcers to recover his son at the earliest. 

After hearing the petitioner’s version, the court issued notices to the Sindh deputy attorney general, advocate general and other respondents to file their comments at the next hearing.