Ex-commissioner granted pre-arrest bail in graft case

The Sindh High Court on Monday granted protective pre-arrest bail to former Karachi commissioner Aijaz Ahmed Khan in a Rs100 million National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) corruption case.

Khan, who was a former member of the investment committee of NICL, is being probed by the National Accountability Bureau along with NICL ex-chairman Abid Javed Aktram and other officials for causing Rs100 million losses to the national exchequer.

According to NAB, the former NICL chairman and other members of the investment committee, including the petitioner, gave a poor assessment for investment Rs100 million in a private company FDBIL, which had already booked losses in stock exchange and closed within two months after the investment, causing losses to the exchequer.

The petitioner’s counsel, Haq Nawaz Talpur, submitted that NAB in its meeting had decided to file a reference against the petitioner for misusing his authority and causing losses to the national exchequer and sought protection to appear before NAB.

A division bench, headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro, granted pre-arrest bail to the former commissioner for a surety of Rs500,000 and directed NAB to join the inquiry and cooperate with the investigation officer. The court also issued notices to the deputy prosecutor of NAB and others and called their comments for the confirmation of bail or otherwise.