May 22, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 16, 1429

KARACHI, May 21: A division bench of the Sindh High Court consisting of Justices Yasmin Abbasy and Rana Mohammad Shamim warned a commercial bank against harassment of an alleged defaulter and directed to proceed against him strictly in accordance with the law if he had committed a default.

Petitioner Bilal Omar Khan alleged that he was being harassed by a recovery team of Citibank for having defaulted on a loan facility despite his request for adjustment and assurance to pay amount found outstanding against him.

Zardari’s bail

Justice Bin Yamin of the Sindh High Court disposed of as infructuous a state appeal against the grant of bail to PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari in the murder case of Mir Murtaza Bhutto, son of the late prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, by a district and sessions judge. Mir Murtaza, MPA and chairman of his own faction of the PPP, was killed in an alleged police encounter outside his Clifton residence in September 1996.

Special public prosecutor M. Ilyas Khan, the judge noted, has requested the withdrawal of the state appeal as the high court has quashed the main case for want of evidence and acquitted Mr Zardari.

Bail for NAB accused

Another bench comprising Justices Qaiser Iqbal and Mahmood Alam Rizvi confirmed pre-arrest bail granted to eight accused facing trial before an

accountability court in a land allotment case. According to the bureau, accused tapedar Abdul Rauf Shaikh allotted about 100 acres in the Sajawal district to seven individuals by forging revenue record in return for illegal gratification.

Their counsel, Amer Raza Naqvi, argued that the tapedar was not empowered to allot any land and no document produced by the prosecution carried his signature. The bureau was indulging in a pick-and-choose policy and has ignored a large number of illegal allotments. A NAB counsel argued that the government has suffered a loss due to the forgery of the accused and the grant of bail to the accused would delay the trial of the reference filed against them. The bench ordered that the accused be admitted to bail in the sum of Rs 500,000 each.