KARACHI, Nov 21: The Sindh High Court on Friday ordered the release of former chairman of Pakistan Steel, Mohammad Usman Farooqui, on bail in the sum of Rs1 million.

A division bench, comprising Justices Zahid Kurban Alavi and Zia Perwez, converted his petition for release from “unlawful detention” into a bail plea and granted him concession after going through two divergent Central Prison (Karachi) reports and hearing his counsel, Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan and Raza Hashmi.

The petitioner was taken into custody in 1996 under the (defunct) Ehtesab Act, convicted in three references and entered plea bargain in two others under the National Accountability Bureau Ordinance. He is on bail in three other cases pending before an anti-corruption judge. He was sentenced to serve seven years rigorous imprisonment each and pay fines of Rs 150 million and Rs 100 million, respectively, in two references in 2001.

In the third reference which involved sale of PSM “end cuts” (scrap) at allegedly throwaway prices and was decided in May 2002, he was to undergo 12 years’ RI and pay a fine of Rs 115 million. He challenged the conviction and sentences in all three references in the Sindh High Court.

Different division benches suspended his jail sentences and ordered his release on bail in two appeals. His plea for suspension of sentence under Section 426 of the code of criminal procedure in the third appeal was disposed of by another division bench, which observed that according to the (then) jail superintendent, he had not only served out his jail term but had “nine years to his credit”.

The question of suspension of sentence did not, therefore, arise, the bench observed in its order of July 2003.

The appellant moved a writ petition challenging his continued detention as illegal and unconstitutional on the basis of the jail report and the observations of the division bench.

Calculating the period of his incarceration from the date of his arrest and also taking into account the remissions he was entitled to, he said he had already served nine years more than his jail term and was not required in any other case and should, therefore, be ordered to be released.

The bench which heard the writ petition called for another jail report. The report, produced before the new division bench on Friday, stated that the petitioner had yet to serve 11 years and eight months more. When the bench inquired about the earlier report, the new Central Prison Superintendent disowned it, saying that it was based on miscalculations. He said no bail order had been received from the anti-corruption court seized of three cases against the petitioner.

Contesting the petition, Additional Advocate-General Qazi Khalid Ali submitted that the 12 years jail sentence awarded to the petitioner was to run from the date of his conviction in the third reference in May 2002. Remissions under Section 382 CrPC were not permissible to accountability court convicts. In any case, the remissions were not to be granted by the jail authorities automatically.

He cited a 2001 judgment of another division bench, comprising Justices Sabihuddin Ahmed and S. Ali Aslam Jafri, declaring: “The law only requires that when a court considers a convict to be entitled to the benefit of Section 382, all that it does is to reduce the requisite period of detention from the substantive sentence awarded to him. Remissions in the period of imprisonment are only thereafter granted by the executive under the authority conferred by law.

Therefore, we are unable to accede to the proposition that the commencement of the sentences in such cases dates back to the date of original arrest”.