Editor-in-Chief's fresh bail plea: LHC issues NAB notice for 28th

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) Tuesday directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to submit its response by May 28, in a petition seeking bail of Jang/Geo Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman.

The notice was issued by a two-member bench, chaired by Justice Sardar Ahmed Naeem, on a petition, filed by Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman counsel. During the hearing, the judge asked counsel for Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, Amjad Pervaiz, the reasons for filing the new application.

“What is your fresh ground for filing this application?” the judge asked Pervaiz. The lawyer informed the court that Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman was on judicial remand and there was no reason to keep him behind the bars. He stated that there was nothing to be recovered from the petitioner.

“NAB had stated that they had also summoned Nawaz Sharif, the then chief minister of Punjab,” Pervaiz told the court. To this, the court asked what steps had been taken to question Nawaz Sharif. The lawyer told the court that the former chief minister was yet to join the inquiry.

Upon hearing this, the court asked NAB to submit its response in the case by May 28 and asked what they had found while keeping Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman in jail.

The counsel pleaded that the petitioner was the Editor-in-Chief of the Jang/Geo Group, the oldest, largest and the most popular media group in Pakistan, which has always enjoyed an enviable repute as a true professional, committed to excellence. It is known for its services and contribution for democracy, rule of law, independence of judiciary, human rights and good governance. He said that for more than 45 years, the petitioner had been working as a journalist and in the news business in Pakistan. The counsel said NAB had been accused of excesses even by the superior courts and the political parties time and again. The government itself promulgated an ordinance on Dec 28, 2019, amending NAO 1999, seeking to protect private citizens, businessmen and bureaucrats, who had become virtually dysfunctional. That, in a way, is a kind of an admission by the government that NAB had gone out of control and it needed to be reined in at least to the extent of businessman/bureaucracy.

The counsel said Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman was arrested at the complaint verification stage in a 34-year-old property private transaction case, which was in violation of the law. He said the arrest of the petitioner on March 12, 2020 at the complaint verification stage was in blatant violation of the SOPs as well as recent pronouncements of the Superior Court. Separately, an accountability court on Tuesday extended the judicial remand of Jang/Geo Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman till June 1.

Accountability Court judge Jawadul Hassan ordered the jail authorities for producing Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman in the court on the next date of hearing. However, the judge remarked that the court had no objection if Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman was under treatment. The court expressed its displeasure over the excuse of non-production of the accused because of coronavirus pandemic in the country, saying “where are the law ministry and the Constitution of Pakistan?”

The judge remarked that such policies had damaged the country to the core. “How come an accused can be restrained from meeting his lawyer in the name of corona SOPs,” asked the judge, and directed the authorities to produce Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman in the court on next date of hearing