Illegal allotment of land: SC rejects NAB's petition against Sher Ali's acquittal

The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected National Accountability Bureau's (NAB) petition against acquittal of senior PML-N leader Chaudhry Sher Ali in a case pertaining to illegal allotment of land.

A two-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Asif Saeed Khosa and comprising Justice Qazi Mohammed Amin Ahmed heard the case against Ali, former mayor of Faisalabad.

The Chief Justice said that the top anti-graft body failed to present a case against Ali, adding NAB failed to prove the links between the suspect and the persons whose pieces of lands were allegedly allotted illegally.

He said that not a single witness admitted of recording his statement under duress from the suspect, adding if NAB's witnesses had to say it all, why the suspect needed a defense team.

Justice Khosa said that the suspect's job is to prove his assets and it is NAB's job to prove assets that don't belong to the suspect.

The NAB prosecutor said that the suspect had made illegal allotments.

On this, the Chief Justice responded that being mayor doesn't mean that every wrong thing done while he was mayor will be put on him.

He was mayor in 1983 and the case was formed in 2000.

In 2002, a Rawalpindi court had sentenced Ali to five years of rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 100 million on charges of accumulation of movable and immovable assets through corruption by misusing his public office.

He had also been disqualified from holding any public office or applying for any financial facility from a state-controlled DFI for a period of 10 years.

In another case, he was sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 20 million.

Ali is the father of outspoken PML-N leader and former state minister for water and power Abid Sher Ali.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019