Relatives can’t be prevented from meeting a UTP: SHC
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, July 25: Friends and relatives cannot be prevented from meeting an under-trial prisoner in accordance with the law and rules, a Sindh High Court division bench observed on Friday.
Allowing a petition filed by advocate Saify Ali Khan on behalf of Ms Khanum Nawab for meeting her son in jail, the bench, comprising Justices Zahid Kurban Alavi and Zia Perwez, said friends and relatives could see a prisoner as many times as permitted by the rules. So far as meeting with the counsel was concerned, an accused has a constitutionally-guaranteed right to be defended by a lawyer of his or her choice and could not be deprived of legal advice or counselling.
The lawyer earlier submitted that the petitioner’s son, former assistant excise officer Ashraf Shaheen, was involved as a co- accused in a narcotics case and was standing trial before a special court. While the main accused was enjoying all due and undue facilities in jail, the co-accused had been denied a meeting with his mother or counsel.
The home secretary, Advocate Saify submitted, intervened several times but the inspector-general of police and the jail authorities were bent upon keeping Ashraf incommunicado. He was being shifted from one jail to another and was not being produced before the trial court.
Citing the jail manual and the prison rule, besides the relevant constitutional provisions, the lawyer said the treatment meted out to the prisoner was discriminatory and contrary to the law.
As many as six relatives and friends could see an under-trial prisoner at a time, according to the lawyer.
The bench directed the jail authorities to allow the petitioner and the lawyer to meet the prisoner without let or hindrance in accordance with the rules.
ALLIANCE MOTORS: A Sindh High Court division bench admitted a National Accountability Bureau accused in the Alliance Motors case to bail before arrest against two sureties of Rs 2.5 million each on Friday.
According to investigators, accused Mansoor Ahmed was in the possession of a plot bought with the funds of the defunct Alliance Motors and T.J. Ibrahim and Company by his late father-in-law, Pir Haji Mohammad Usman.
An accountability court seized of the case had issued non-bailable warrants for his arrest.
Arguing for his pre-arrest bail, Advocate Mohammad Ashraff Kazi submitted that the mere fact that the accused was a son-in-law of Pir Usman did not mean that the property he possessed was purchased with the funds of depositors.
Pir Usman, who was a spiritual leader, had nothing to do with the defunct companies. The property sought to be confiscated was owned by Pir Usman and not by the companies.
The Pir, the lawyer said, was allotted 10 plots by his disciples in the KDA for serving the cause of Islam. He merged them into one plot measuring 11,520 square yards and numbered 147 in sector 50-C, Korangi.
He also created a construction fund for building a mosque and a “khanqah”.
Claiming to be his disciples, Tayyab and Jawwad floated a company, named T.J. Ibrahim and Company, to collect funds for the project. Later, they also launched Alliance Motors. Pir Usman, who died in 1990, however, stopped them from collecting funds in his name or exploiting his goodwill to solicit deposits for investment by their companies.
Advocate Kazi submitted that the NAB authorities wanted the accused to produce the original record pertaining to the Korangi plot “despite the fact that it was taken into custody by the directors of the defunct company after his father-in-law’s death”.
He might be coerced into making a confession if arrested by the investigators. Non-bailable warrants had already been issued against him.
The division bench, which comprised Justices Ghulam Nabi Soomro and Azizullah M. Memon, ordered that the accused be granted bail in the total sum of Rs 5 million. Mohammad Afzal, another son-in-law of Pir Usman, was granted bail earlier this month.
