KARACHI, March 31: A Sindh High Court division bench asked the provincial home secretary to decide the question of remissions allowed to former banker Yunus Habib, who was convicted of banking offences by a special court in 1995, after hearing the convict.

The convict was sentenced to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment but was generously allowed remissions by the inspector-general of prisons and the jail superintendent. He was granted remissions for a total of 3,374 days. Five hundred and fifty-five days of remission was given for acquiring educational qualifications alone.

A reference was made by the Sindh government to the chief justice of the Sindh High Court seeking his opinion on the question of remissions. The CJ appointed the special judge for customs, since elevated to the high court, to hold an inquiry into the matter.

The inquiry judge declared the remissions unlawful under Section 401 (3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure read with Section 21 of the General Clauses Act. He said there was no vested right in the illegally-granted remissions and they could be withdrawn. Acting on the judicial inquiry report, the home secretary cancelled the remissions in 2002.

A petition against the withdrawal of remissions was moved by the convict, who had since been released on parole, through Advocate Abdul Mujib Pirzada. He said the home secretary issued him no notice and cancelled his remissions without hearing him. The petition came up before a division bench comprising Justices Shabbir Ahmed and Khilji Arif Hussain on Thursday.

Contesting the petition, Additional Advocate-General M. Ahmed Pirzada submitted that there was no need to issue notice to the convict. The home secretary acted on the recommendations of a judicial inquiry. The inquiry judge afforded the convict full opportunity to justify and defend the remissions and gave his findings after hearing him.