ISLAMABAD, Oct 4: A double bench of the Lahore High Court on Wednesday took up the appeal of former National Assembly speaker Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani who has been in jail for the last five years.

The former speaker was arrested on February 10, 2001 on charges of misusing his official position and recruiting hundreds of people from his constituency. He was proceeded against in the National Accountability court and was sentenced to 10 years jail and a fine of Rs100 million. In case of defaulting in paying the money, he would undergo for an additional five years jail.

Mr Gillani filed an appeal named ‘Suspension of Sentence and Release on Bail’ in the Rawalpindi Bench of the superior court which the latter took up for hearing on Wednesday. He was represented by Aitezaz Ahsan.

The petitioner counsel argued before the court that all the appointments were made by the secretary, National Assembly. The latter was the competent authority to do that and so it did not constitute breach of law or violation of rules and regulations, he further contended.

All these people have been working till now and none of them has been sacked which further justified that these appointments were made according to rules and regulations, he argued. Were these appointments illegal, all the people would have long been dismissed, the petitioner counsel argued. This proves that all the charges framed against Mr Gillani of recruiting near and dears are false, he told the court.

Furthermore, Wasim Sajjad was the chairman senate then and he also made numerous appointments but no case has been framed against him because he had switched over to the government side, he argued. He said this was clear example of political victimisation.

Defending NAB, senior prosecutor Abdul Basir Qureshi said that about 600 illegal appointments were made in different government departments and organisations. All these people belong to the constituency of the accused, he argued. The prosecutor further contended that bail could not be granted in cases of such nature.

After hearing arguments from both sides, the double bench comprising Justice Abdul Shakoor Paracha and Justice Syed Sajjad Hussain Shah adjourned the hearing for tomorrow.