SUKKUR: The Sukkur bench of the Sindh High Court on Monday rejected pleas filed by 22 suspects, including engineers of the provincial highways department, for confirmation of their bail in a corruption reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

The reference against former executive engineer, Gul Hassan Shaikh, engineer Jameel Qureshi and sub-engineer Abdur Rab Shaikh of the provincial highways department, as well as Ghulam Shabbir Solangi, Ashfaq Awan, contractor Gul Hassan Halepota (presently a member of the Sukkur district council), Syed Naseem Shah, Shamsabad UC (Sukkur) chairman Haji Wazir Mahar, Old Sukkur UC chairman Meer Mahar, Ghulam Shabbir Kalwar, Ali Naseer Shah, Kamal Azfar, Jawed Ali and others was filed two years ago. The suspects had obtained an interim bail from the SHC which was recently challenged by NAB.

After hearing the counsel of both sides, the SHC bench at Sukkur comprising Justice Hassan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Rasheed Soomro had reserved the verdict a week ago. The bench pronounced its verdict on Monday rejecting all suspects’ pleas for the confirmation of the interim bail.

All suspects have reportedly gone underground to escape arrest.

The reference pertained to corruption to the tune of millions of rupees in the road building works executed some eight years ago.

None of the accused could be approached by phone as they appeared to have switched off their mobile phones.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2017