IHC directs Capt Safdar to appear in person on 14th

ISLAMABAD: A division bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday, in the petition of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), has directed Captain (R) Muhammad Safdar to appear before the court in person on December 14.
NAB has been seeking judicial custody of Captain Safdar revoking his release on post arrest bail. An Accountability Court (AC) on October 2 had issued non-bailable arrest warrant for Captain Safdar and on October 9 granted bail to him after he was arrested by NAB officials at Islamabad Airport.
Before that, the AC had issued non-bailable arrest warrant for Captain Safdar after he did not appeared before the court despite summons.
Today’s hearing, the IHC bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani directed Safdar to appear before the court after a NAB prosecutor submitted that the AC was not authorised under the law to release Safdar on bail. In this petition, NAB has cited Captain (R) Muhammad Safdar and Accountability Court (AC) as respondents. NAB, in its application, said that Captain Safdar is an accused in Avenfield apartments corruption reference. The AC on September 14 had summoned him to appear before the court for September 19. After Safdar did not appeared before the court, the AC re-summoned him for September 26 and even then he did not appeared.
On October 2, the AC issued non-bailable arrest warrants for him. On October 8, NAB arrested the accused from airport and produced him before the court. The AC instead of remanding him to the judicial custody of NAB released him on bail against rs5 million surety bonds that is unlawful. NAB, in this petition, contended that the AC had no powers to grant bail to the accused under Section 9(b) of the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999.
NAB has requested the court to set aside the AC order dated October 9 while declaring it illegal and without jurisdiction, and Captain (R) Muhammad Safdar may be remanded to the judicial custody of NAB. The petition has been filed through a NAB special prosecutor Muhammad Afzal Qureshi.