Former NAB prosecutor gets seven years in prison

An accountability court convicted and awarded a seven-year imprisonment term to former National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutor Hussain Bakhsh Baloch. The court also imposed a fine of Rs280 million on the convict.

The court in its verdict observed that Hussain Bakhsh Baloch had failed to act efficiently and due to his negligence, corrupt elements benefited from billions of rupees in different cases.

The court further observed that as a NAB prosecutor, Hussain Bakhsh Baloch had not moved appeals before the appellate courts against the verdicts of the subordinate courts.

In various cases, the corrupt elements had benefited from huge amounts of money that showed that Baloch was involved in underhanded dealings with them, said the court.

Interestingly, as the news of the punishment of the former prosecutor spread among lawyers, many advocates, including Sindh High Court Bar Association President Saleem Mangio, gathered at the accountability court. Some of the lawyers suggested that the court should review its verdict.

Later on, some representatives of the lawyers claimed that they would approach every legal forum and express their disappointment over the verdict of punishing their colleague.

Provocative speech

An anti-terrorism court hearing the provocative speech and media houses attack cases against Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leaders Dr Farooq Sattar, Qamar Mansoor, Mehfooz Yar Khan, Prof Hassan Zafar Arif and others has fixed February 3 as the next date of hearing.

MQM-P chief Farooq Sattar failed to appear in court on Saturday and, instead, his attorney Advocate Irshad Bhandhani moved an application stating that his client was ill and it was not possible for him to appear before the court. The court granted the exemption.

Moreover, the attorneys for the other accused also moved applications to exempt their clients from appearance before the court and the court granted the same.

However, Qamar Mansoor, Prof Hassan Zafar Arif, Mehfooz Yar Khan, Sathi Ishaque and Amjadullah were present in court.

The copies of the cases could not be provided to all the accused who are accused of facilitating MQM founder Altaf Hussain, who had delivered provocative speeches against the security institutions of the country.