Sindh High Court Friday granted protective bail to Mustafa Kamal, Chairman Pakistan Sarzameen Party (PSP) in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) reference in alleged illegal allotment of land. A division bench of SHC comprising Justice Iqbal Kalhoro and Justice Shamsuddin Abbasi approved the protective bail of Mustafa Kamal, former City Nazim against a surety bond of Rs 1 million.
Kamal moved the court for protective bail after NAB filed a reference against him and others for alleged illegal allotment of 5,500 square yards of commercial land to a private builder for raising a multistory building in the metropolis. Upon filing of reference, an accountability court issued notices to Kamal and two other accused in the said case. The court asked the counsel for Mustafa Kamal as to why they sought the protective bail if the notices have been issued by NAB.
The counsel replied that former City Nazim can be arrested any time after NAB named him suspect in the particular reference. Kamal's counsel objected to Rs 1 million surety for the bail of his client after telling the court that bail of other suspects was approved in half of surety amount of Kamal's bond for the bail.
The bench remarked that if they would approve the bail in Rs 0.5 million if the counsel produced the bail orders of other suspects in the same case.
Meanwhile, SHC bench approved the bail pleas of Ayaz Niazi, Mohammad Zahoor, Amin Qasim Dad and others in NICL corruption case against surety of Rs 1 million. Court reprimanded NAB officials for not producing the relevant materials to the case even after the passage of ten years. Justice Iqbal Kalhoro warned NAB to refrain from misleading the court and said that it should work in the domain of law and not go for blackmailing the people. The court also overruled the objections of NAB against the bail of accused and remarked, "Don't tell the court that who should be given the bail or who should not." The court observed that people can't be put behind the bar on the whim of NAB and asked prosecutor to explain its objections against the bail.
NAB prosecutor told the court that accused caused huge loss to national exchequer by purchasing expensive land in Dubai. The court observed that NAB should produce new materials after the bureau claimed that it got fresh evidences against the accused in this case.
Comments
Comments are closed.