12 February 2004	Thursday	20 Zilhaj 1424

KARACHI, Feb 11: The Sindh High Court allowed on Wednesday one-time exemption to the former chairman of the rice export corporation, Shaikh M. Ishaque, who is facing trial for corruption before an accountability court , to proceed to the United States for treatment on payment of Rs200,000 as security.

The petitioner submitted that he was 70 years old and was suffering from an illness that could not be treated in Pakistan. His wife died of cancer recently and there was nobody to look after him at a time when he needed constant care and nursing. His name was put on the exit control list when a reference against him was filed by the National Accountability Bureau.

The petitioner's counsel, M. Ilyas Khan, submitted that former federal minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar and former rice export corporation chief and Punjab chief secretary Brig Aslam Hayat Qureshi (retired) had already been acquitted in the same reference.

Like the two co-accused, there was no possibility of the petitioner's conviction on the basis of the material produced by the prosecution before the accountability court.

A division bench comprising Justices Anwar Zaheer Jamali and S. Ali Aslam Jafri allowed the petitioner to go to the United States for treatment and return to Pakistan to face trial within two months.