KARACHI, Jan 21: Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany of the Sindh High Court directed on Monday the additional sessions Judge III (South) to order immediate release of a Chinese national, You Jin Tong, who had been arrested by the FIA Passport cell in July last year.
The judge passed the order when the bail application of the Chinese national came up before him.
The applicant, who was represented by Shaukat Hayat, advocate, had been arrested on July 4, 2001 on a charge of illegal entry into Pakistan and cheating and forging travel documents to send other Chinese nationals abroad. At the same bungalow in DHA, Karachi, where the applicant was arrested, 21 other Chinese nationals were also taken into custody and thereafter were released by court.
The trial court had rejected the bail application of the accused on Dec 13. Thereafter, the High Court was moved. During pendency of the trail, the ministry of interior recommended withdrawal of the case and referred the matter to the Sindh government. Subsequently, the Sindh home department, after taking account of the case, decided to withdraw the case and directed the district attorney to move a proper application for withdrawal of the case from the court of the additional sessions judge III (South) under section of 494 CrPC.
The trial judge, after hearing the application, granted withdrawal of the case, but deferred to release the accused forthwith and fixed Jan 28 for release order.
Counsel Shoukat Hayat urged that after passing of withdrawal order on Jan 17, the trial judge was bound to release the accused forthwith and his continuous confinement amounted to unlawful detention and without jurisdiction.
Syed Tariq Ali, the state counsel, stated that if the trial judge had passed the order of
