IHC reserves verdict on NAB plea seeking Capt Safdar’s custody

ISLAMABAD: An Islamabad High Court (IHC) division bench here on Thursday reserved its judgement on the petition of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) seeking judicial custody of Captain (R) Muhammad Safdar revoking his release on post arrest bail.

An accountability court (AC) on October 2 had issued non-bailable warrant for Captain Safdar arrest and on October 9 granted bail to him after he was arrested by NAB officials at Islamabad Airport and produced him before the AC. The AC had granted bail to him against 5million surety bonds that the NAB prosecution challenged saying that the trial court had no such powers to grant bail.

A division bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani reserved judgement here on Thursday.

Today’s hearing Captain Safdar was reprimanded by the court for using mobile phone in the courtroom and the phone was taken away. Safdar had been using mobile phone of another person who was accompanying him. Safdar then apologised before the court, but the phone was returned after he submitted written apology and owner of the phone submitted Rs1,000 fine.

NAB Prosecutor Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi argued before the court that the anti-graft body was directed by the court to execute non-bailable arrest warrants that they did arresting Safdar. He said that the warrant of arrest could not be treated like summons. He said that the order of trial court dated October 9 to release Safdar on bail was illegal as only a high court division bench could grant bail to him under NAB laws and trial court had no powers in this regard.

The IHC bench questioned the prosecutor that whether NAB always seeks permission from the trial court before arresting an accused. To which the prosecutor replied that they only praying for judicial custody of Safdar, and they made this same request before trial accountability court. Hearing the case, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani remarked that a court only has to ensure presence of the accused while hearing and putting an accused behind the bar is the mandate of investigation agency.

NAB could arrest the accused at any stage of investigation, and it was right of an accused to file a pre-arrest bail application, the IHC judge also said. The bench said if NAB prosecution wants custody of the accused, it should tell the authorities concerned to issue order in this respect.

Legal counsel for Captain Safdar, Amjad Pervez, advocate, counter argued that the only purpose of non-bailable arrest warrant is to ensure presence of the accuse before the court, and if an accused appears or produced before the court by the investigation, he can submit surety bonds to get release under Section 19 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). The only purpose to ensure presence of an accused before the court is to answer the charge, Safdar’s counsel also said.