SHC confirms pre-arrest bail of Sharjeel Memon, others in corruption case

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday confirmed the interim protective bail to Pakistan Peoples Party MPA and former Sindh information minister Sharjeel Inam Memon and others in a case pertaining to assets beyond known sources of income but directed the ministry of interior to place their names on the exit control list.

Memon had filed a petition with the SHC for obtaining pre-arrest bail due to the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) investigation against him for allegedly having accumulated wealth through corrupt practices.

A NAB prosecutor submitted that Memon had accumulated wealth and assets worth Rs2.43 billion beyond his known sources of income and purchased properties on benamie persons and relatives’ names. He sought dismissal of bail petitions as NAB had sufficient evidence to prove the guilt of the accused persons.

The petitioner’s counsel had earlier submitted that NAB kept the inquiry pending as a tool to pressurise his client as well as keep him in prison for years. He said the NAB inquiry and the reference were sheer abuse of power by the anti-graft watchdog against the petitioner who had also been incarcerated for 21 months in another NAB reference and later on granted bail by the court.

A division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha after hearing the arguments of the counsel, for reasons to be recorded later on, confirmed the pre-arrest bail of Memon subject to additional surety of Rs4 million.

The high court also granted protective pre-arrest bail to his family members Sadaf Sharjeel and Zeenat Inam Memon with a surety of Rs1 million each. The bench also confirmed the pre-arrest protective bail to co-accused Zeeshan, Subhan, Agha Ahsan, Waseem Akhtar Thebo and Shaukat Ali Thebo on the same terms and conditions.

The court had also granted Memon bail in the Rs5.78 billion advertisement corruption reference in October last year. The former information minister, information department officials, including Zulfiqar Ali Shalwani and Sarang Latif, and others, including advertising companies’ representatives, had been booked by NAB in the corruption reference for committing corruption in the awarding of advertisements of the provincial government’s awareness campaigns in the electronic media.