November 18, 2008	Tuesday	Ziqa'ad 19, 1429

KARACHI, Nov 17: An additional district and sessions court (south) granted interim pre-arrest bail to an accused in a case pertaining to an attempt on life of Asif Ali Zardari in 1999, on a Rs200,000 surety on Monday.

The accused, former superintendent of the central prison Najaf Mirza, submitted a bail application in court through his counsel, arguing that he was on leave when the incident took place.

The former National Accountability Bureau chief, Saifur Rehman Khan, his brother Mujibur Rehman Khan, former inspector-general of police Rana Maqbool, former deputy inspector-general of police Farooq Amin Qureshi and, Najaf Mirza were the accused in the case.

Earlier, the court declared all the accused were proclaimed offenders, since the police had failed to execute the non-bailable arrest warrants for the accused.

The accused were charged with obtaining an ‘unlawful’ physical custody of Asif Ali Zardari from an anti-terrorism court on the night between May 15 and 16, 1999. They took him to the CIA Centre where they allegedly tortured him and forced him to record incriminatory statements.The public prosecutor, Abdul Maharoof, opposed the plea maintaining that the bail could not be granted once the process of Section 87 (proclamation for persons absconding) and Section 88 (attachment of property of person absconding) of the Criminal Procedure Code was completed.

However, the court granted one-day interim pre-arrest bail to the accused and directed him to appear in court on Tuesday for confirmation of his bail.

UTPs’ security

The district police officer of Sanghar meanwhile assured the Sindh High Court of adequate security measures to prevent the recurrence of incidents involving murder of undertrial prisoners on court premises.

An undertrial prisoner was killed after his appearance in a court at Sanghar. The district and sessions judge asked the DPO, Altaf Hussain Leghari, to tighten security arrangements for UTPs. The DPO failed to take any steps and another UTP was killed outside a Shahdadpur court. The UTPs protested and informed the jail superintendent that they would not appear in courts till their security was ensured. The district and sessions judge submitted a reference to Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali. The CJ assigned the reference to Justice Amir Hani Muslim, who converted it into criminal miscellaneous application and summoned the DPO and other police officers. While other police officers appeared in response to the court notices and assured that all possible steps would be taken to ensure the security of the UTPs, DPO Leghari failed to respond on several dates and Justice Muslim issued him a contempt notice. The DPO finally appeared on Monday and tendered an unconditional apology. He said there was no deliberate attempt to avoid appearance and he was on leave.

The DPO undertook to spruce up the security measures and make special arrangements for the UTPs to appear before courts without risking their lives. Accepting the apology and the assurance, the judge disposed of the criminal miscellaneous application.

UTPs’ transfer

A division bench consisting of Justices Khilji Arif Hussain and Dr Qamaruddin Bohra, meanwhile, advised prisoners’ rights campaigner Syed Iqbal Kazmi to move a fresh petition to agitate his grievance that about 326 undertrial prisoners had been shifted from the Malir jail to the interior of Sindh after the October 15 rioting. Kazmi said hearing of a large number of criminal cases had been suspended due to the absence of the accused UTPs.

As for his initial petition about the maltreatment of prisoners at the Malir jail, the bench allowed him to approach Justices Amir Hani Muslim and Zafar Ahmad Khan Sherwani, who had specially been detailed by the CJ to look into the conditions prevailing in the province’s jails. Former Malir jail superintendent Yunus Masih appeared before the judge on Monday and tendered an unconditional apology for his misdemeanour. The apology was accepted.

Show-cause notice

Justice Muslim, meanwhile, issued the president and secretary of the Mir Mohammad Goth Residents Association and local officials notices to show cause why they should not be prosecuted for contempt of court.Advocate Nisar A. Mujahid submitted on behalf the applicant concern, M/s Javedan Cement, that the respondents were violating the status quo order passed by the court on Nov 4. They had not only made further encroachment on the applicant’s land with police assistance in disregard of the court order but were also raising construction on it in gross violation of it in complicity with police, which was not prepared to entertain any complaint against the encroachers.