Safdar granted 10-day protective bail

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday granted 10-day protective bail to Capt (retd) Muhammad Safdar, son-in-law of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who is facing inquiries initiated by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

The bench comprising Justice Ali Baqar Najfi and Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan ordered Safdar to furnish two surety bonds of Rs500,000 each. Safdar had moved the LHC seeking protective bail as the petitioner feared that NAB, KPK would arrest him.

Advocate Azam Nazir Tarar argued before a two-judge bench that the petitioner failed to appear before NAB's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter in connection with two inquiries initiated against him on the allegations of accumulating assets beyond means and financial corruption.

He pointed out that the NAB authorities had delivered some notices to his Mansehra residence, whereas he was currently residing in Jati Umra due to medical reasons. Safdar added that he came to know that NAB had sent several notices to him when he was serving a jail term at Adiala Jail but said that he did not receive any of them.

He said he feared that the NAB officials would arrest him since it had adopted a practice of arresting persons on inquiry stage despite joining the investigations. Advocate Tarar told the bench that the petitioner was a law abiding citizen and willing to join the bureau’s investigation despite the fact the charges against him had not been clearly mentioned in the summons.

He asked the bench to allow protective bail to the petitioner so that he could appear before the NAB and join its investigation.   The bench gave protective bail to Safdar for ten days and restrained the NAB from arresting him.