March 27, 2008	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 18, 1429

RAWALPINDI, March 26: A special anti-corruption court here on Wednesday granted bail to former federal minister for minorities Mushtaq Victor in a human smuggling case.

The judge, Shaukat Ali Sajid directed the accused to submit two surety bonds of Rs500,000 each after the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) failed to satisfy the court on a point raised by the defence lawyer that why no one had claimed the former minister extorted money from him.

The investigating officer told the court that though they had received information that the accused had obtained money from people in return for sending them abroad, no claimant had turned up for recovery of the amount.

In the bail application through his lawyer Zulfiqar Abbas Naqvi, Mr Victor maintained that neither anyone had accused him of extorting money nor claimed the return of their money. He said the prosecution had also failed to bring any evidence that he had prepared any fake documents showing people his relatives.

The former minister also said investigations had been underway against him for the last two years but the case was registered with the FIA this year.

It showed that the government had implicated him in a false case to put pressure on him. As there is no charge of human smuggling against the accused, he should be granted bail against surety bonds, the counsel argued.

The FIA took the former minister into custody on March 7 in a case registered under section 420 of the Pakistan Penal Code (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and under immigration ordinance 1997’s section 17 (unlawful immigration), 18 (to induce someone) and 22 (to extort money on the pretext of sending people abroad).