KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday granted bail to former information minister Sharjeel Inam Memon in Rs.5.78 billion advertisement corruption reference observing the case has now become an inquiry into the rates paid by the government of Sindh to the advertising agencies in term of their “exorbitancy”.
The court also suspended the arrest warrants of the PPP leader in another NAB case pertaining to assets beyond his known source of income till June 27 (Thursday). The former information minister Sharjeel Inam Memon and others were booked by the NAB in corruption reference for award of advertisements of provincial government’s awareness campaigns in electronic media.
Memon’s counsel Khalid Javed sought his bail on medical grounds and delay in pendency of the trial. He submitted his client was incarcerated since October 2017 after dismissal of his pre-arrest bail and only three witnesses were examined by the trial court out of 50. He submitted that rates of advertisement were not exorbitant and were lower than those paid by the federal government to advertisement agencies at the time of filing of the reference. He requested the court to grant the petitioner bail.
The defence counsel also sought suspension of Memon's arrest warrants in a new case pertaining to accumulation of wealth beyond known sources of income. He submitted that NAB had attempted to arrest the petitioner in assets case while he was in prison. He also submitted that accountability court had issued an NOC for the petitioner's arrest therefore the order be set aside and NAB be restrained from arresting the petitioner in that case. He submitted that NAB did not want to take a chance that petitioner may be granted bail, and had therefore moved for his arrest in another case.
The NAB's prosecutor submitted that there is no malafide on their part and the arrest warrants were executed after impugned order of the accountability court which should remain in the field. He opposed Memon's bail application and submitted that trial is pending before the accountability court and the proceedings are being conducted daily. He submitted that 17 accused were nominated in the reference including the petitioner who approved exorbitant rates for the advertisements to the advertising agencies and caused loss to national exchequer, and requested the court to dismiss the petition.
The SHC’s division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha observed that petitioner's counsel has raised new grounds by mentioning the federal information ministry's rates for electronic media advertisements which are valid for all federal, provincial, public sector organizations from December 27, 2018. The court observed that it appears that during the reference period, the rates being paid by Sindh as authorized by the petitioner to the advertising agencies were much lower than those paid by the federal government’s ministry of information. The court observed that this raises the point whether the rates charged in the reference period were in accordance with the market rates especially since the federal government was paying much more as the ministry of information had admitted that there was no regularization or standardization of the rates at the time when the reference was filed or even today.
The court granted bail to Sharjeel Memon at a surety sum of Rs.5 million and directed the ministry of interior to place his name on the Exit Control List. The court observed that findings in the order are only a tentative assessment of the material on record and will have no bearing on the outcome of the trial which shall be decided on merit by the trial court based on the evidence on record.
Regarding plea against arrest warrants in the assets case, the court observed that the warrant of arrest is yet to be executed upon the petitioner. The court observed that inquiry in the case of assets was authorized on December 22, 2018 and converted into investigation on January 17, 2019 and the warrant of arrest was issued on June 13 but it was only executed after order on Sharjeel Memon's bail petition was reserved.
The court observed that prima facie some attempts may have been made by the NAB to circumvent the court's order on the bail petition to keep him the petitioner in custody. The court observed that the accountability court's order does not seem to have applied judicial mind before giving NOC to the execution of arrest warrants. The court suspended the arrest warrants and the NOC of the accountability court till June 27 and ordered NAB not to arrest him in the assets case.
