KARACHI, Aug 10: The Sindh High Court cancelled on Tuesday the bail granted by it to former Pakistan Steel chairman Mohammad Usman Farooqui for his failure to appear before the trial court.

Mr Farooqui is being tried by an anti-corruption court (central) for awarding a contract for sale of billets at a throwaway price to favourites and thereby causing a loss of Rs50 million to the exchequer. He was granted bail by the high court in the sum of Rs10 million in May 2002.

A reference was, however, received from the trial court that the accused had failed to appear before it on consecutive dates from January 2004 to June 2004 and that it had reasons to believe that the non-appearance was deliberate.

Justice Amir Hani Muslim, who took up the trial court's reference, observed that the accused had dis-entitled himself of the concession of bail by wilfully avoiding to appear before the court. Cancelling the bail, he allowed the trial court to forfeit the security after notice to surety in accordance with the law.