KARACHI, May 20: A division bench of the Sindh High Court dismissed on Monday the bail application of the former CEO of Mehran Bank, Younus Habib, who is accused of misuse of authority and causing a loss of millions of rupees.

The bench consisted of Justice Ghulam Nabi Soomro and Justice Ata-ur-Rahman.

Mazhar-ul-Haq, Assistant Vice President of the NBP, had lodged a complaint at the FIA, Commercial Banking Circle (CBC), alleging misappropriation and misuse of authority by accused Younus Habib.

The FIA CBC, after inquiry, registered a case (7/2000) under various sections of PPC.

Abdul Qadir Tawakkal and Younus Habib are under custody in the case, and Salim A. Kapoorwala, Noor Abdul Qadir Tawakkal, Javed Hussain and Farid Abdul Qadir Tawakkal are absconding.

Yunus Habib was on an interim bail and had filed another application maintaining that his name was not included in the interim challan. His contention was that he had wrongly been implicated when the final challan had been submitted.

Represented by Abdul Mujeeb Pirzada, he blamed the investigation officer, Assistant Director of FIA, CBC, Ghulam Farooq, for implicating him because of personal grudge.

Amir Hani Muslim, Deputy Attorney-General, appearing for the FIA, claimed that the accused had advanced a financial facility of Rs40 million to the Tawakkal group of companies for the purchase of Balochistan Wheels Limited, a subsidiary of Pakistan Automobile.

The Tawakkal group had pledged 80 per cent of jumbo shares of Balochistan Wheels with Mehran Bank Limited, with the assurance that they would make it marketable and give it to Mehran Bank. Instead of giving it to Mehran Bank they were sold in the open market by the Tawakkals without any objection raised by Yunus Habib. Later, the shares pledged with Mehran Bank were floated. Mehran Bank was subsequently merged with National Bank and thus the bank sustained a loss of millions of rupees.

It was the contention of the DAG that IO Ghulam Farooq had not registered the case against Yunus Habib and that he had come in the picture only after Abdul Hameed Pathan had registered the case and recorded the statements of witnesses. He also denied allegations of personal enmity.

The DAG contended that the judgment of Balochistan High Court, relied upon, had no nexus with the present proceedings. The NBP filed the petition and it was dismissed on the ground that it was barred by latches. The judgment of the accountability court which had acquitted Younus Habib was the outcome of a separate FIR (48/97), that too had no bearing on this case.