17 April 2004	Saturday	26 Safar 1425

KARACHI, April 16: A division bench of the Sindh High Court dismissed on Friday a writ petition moved for release and acquittal of former interior ministry joint secretary and Karachi divisional commissioner Ziaul Islam.

Petitioner Kausar Perveen, the former DMG officer's wife and a co-accused in the reference against him, had her bail confirmed for having been charged with a lesser offence and for being a woman.

The officer is alleged by the National Accountability Bureau to have acquired assets unaccounted for by his known sources of income. The couple, according to the bureau, had properties and bank accounts amounting to over Rs 50 million.

According to the petition, the accused was illegally arrested by NAB on December 1, 2003, after having been cleared of any offence by the bureau's investigators. It sought quashment of the reference and its trial by an accountability court. It also sought the release of the accused pending the proceedings. No illegal property has been purchased and none has been concealed, it said.

Contesting the petition, NAB counsel Amanullah Khan submitted in the absence of its deputy prosecutor-general Anwar Tariq that their was sufficient evidence on record to connect the accused with the commission of the offence alleged.

Corruption was a crime against the whole society and the Supreme Court had disallowed bail in such cases. Relief was discretionary in constitutional jurisdiction and the court should not grant it, particularly when the petitioner has tried to conceal the fact of her being a co-accused in the reference sought to be quashed.

He said Mr Islam and Ms Perveen were standing trial before an accountability court, which had already started recording evidence. The former was charged with misusing his power to make unlawful gains and the co-accused was involved as a beneficiary, who had some of the unlawfully acquired assets in her name.

The petition, argued by advocates Khalid Anwer and M. Ilyas Khan, was heard by a bench which consisted of Justices Sabihuddin Ahmed and Zia Perwez. The order was announced by another bench, comprising Justices Ahmed and Muhammad Afzal Soomro.

The bench observed in its order that no case had been made out for grant of bail to the main accused. However, the petitioner would be free to approach the court for bail if the trial was not concluded within two months, it said.