KARACHI : SHC order on transfer of cases at NAB request
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Sept 24: A court or tribunal seized of any case involving an offence under the National Accountability Ordinance must transfer it to an accountability court when so requested by the NAB chairman, a division bench of the Sindh High Court held on Monday.
The high court was moved by the country manager of Biman Airlines, Bangladesh flag carrier, and the bureau against a sessions court order setting aside a judicial magistrate’s decision to transfer a misappropriation case to the administrative judge of accountability courts at the NAB chairman’s request. The case arose from an FIR lodged by country manager M. Nazimuddin with police complaining that the airline’s accountant and a manager of a commercial bank with whom Biman maintained its account had fraudulently deprived it of over Rs70 million. Though it involved a banking offence, the police submitted the case in the court of a judicial magistrate for trial.
In the meantime, the complainant approached the NAB and after the necessary inquiry, the bureau’s chairman requested the magistrate to transfer the case for trial by an accountability court. The magistrate transferred the case but his order was challenged before an additional sessions judge, who set aside the transfer order. The petitions challenged the sessions order. Advocate Kazi Mohammad Ashraff appeared for Biman and Advocate Ainuddin Khan for the bureau.
Allowing the petitions and setting aside the impugned order, the bench, which consisted of Justices Mohammad Afzal Soomro and Rehmat Hussain Jaferi, said in its judgment that clause (a) of Section 16-A of the NAB Ordinance clearly showed the notwithstanding anything contained in any other law, the NAB chairman may apply to any court of law or tribunal for transfer of a case involving an offence mentioned in the ordinance’s schedule. On receipt of such application, the court or tribunal ‘shall’ transfer the case to a court established under the ordinance.
It would appear that the object of the special law is to expedite the disposal of cases involving corruption, corrupt practices, misuse of power, misappropriation of property and connected matters to avoid procedural delays and technicalities. The language of the provision, the bench said, unequivocally reflects the intention of the legislature that it is self-contained and self-executory, leaving no option for the court before which cases involving scheduled offences are pending but to transfer the same. It is rather imperative to accede to such request unless it can be shown to the satisfaction of the court that the offence against the accused does not fall within the schedule.
Overruling the objection that the petitions had been moved after seven months of the passing of the impugned order by the additional sessions court, the bench said when a person/citizen ‘finds no forum to get his grievance redressed, the only course open to him is to invoke constitutional jurisdiction of this court and the same should be exercised sparingly and judiciously’.
LTF case
Hearing the transfer application of the Mashooq Brohi murder case from Nawabshah to Karachi filed by the sacked chief of the Lyari Task Force, Chaudhry Aslam, and others, Justice Sarmad Jalal Usmani of the Sindh High Court on Monday issued a notice to Lal Bibi, widow of Rasool Bux Brohi, for Oct 1.
Suspended SP Chaudhry Aslam had claimed having killed notorious dacoit Mashooq Brohi in a police encounter on July 12, 2006 in the Gadap police limits. However, the claim was rejected and a case against him and the other police officials who had taken part in the encounter was registered at the Sakrand police station on the complaint of Lal Bibi, widow of Rasool Bux Brohi, whom the LTF killed as Mashooq Brohi, agencies add.
The applicants’ counsel, M. Ilyas Khan, and Mohammad Farooq, expressing the lack of trust in the trial court of Nawabshah, said their clients had lost all hopes of impartial trial before the sessions judge of Nawabshah and prayed the court to transfer the case from Nawabshah to the sessions judge of Malir.
It was alleged that the LTF arrested Rasool Bux at his house in Sakrand and later killed him in the Gadap area in a fake encounter. The LTF chief and other senior police officers are facing trial on murder charges before the sessions court in Nawabshah.
Bail in murder case
An SHC bench on Monday granted bail to Salman, an accused in a murder case, for Rs100,000.
The bench comprising Justice Salman Ansari observed that no act had been attributed to the applicant/accused, Salman, at the time of the murder allegedly committed by another accused. The applicant was found only standing at the corner of the lane where the murder was committed.
FIR No 62/ 2007 was registered on June 9 at the Model Colony police station by complainant Mohammad Ayaz, brother of the victim, Nadir, stating that Nasir alias Kalia demanded Rs5,000 through his brother, applicant Salman, which were paid to him. After some days, Nasir demanded more money by the phone and threatened of dire consequences in case of refusal, which would include “my murder and that of my brother.”
On June 8 at 11am, he said, his brother Nadir Anwer was shot dead outside his house by accused Nasir alias Kalia with an accomplice. They both fled the scene on a motorbike after committing the crime while the accused/applicant was standing at the corner of the lane, he alleged.
The additional sessions judge (East) had earlier rejected the bail application.
Advocate Akhtar Jamal represented the applicant and Muhammad Ayaz Khan appeared for the state.
