KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party leader and former provincial information minister Sharjeel Inam Memon and 11 others were arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Monday outside the Sindh High Court after their interim bail was revoked in a case pertaining to corruption of Rs5.76 billion in the information department.

PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari criticised the move and in a thinly veiled reference to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family, who are also facing trial in three NAB cases, tweeted: “One land two laws. One for Sharifs and another for @sharjeelinam #NAB #hypocrisy”.

Mr Memon along with the former provincial information secretary, officials of the information department and heads of different advertisement agencies was booked by NAB for embezzlement of Rs5.76bn between 2013 and 2015.

A two-judge bench headed by SHC Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M. Sheikh cancelled their interim pre-arrest bail earlier granted to the accused and ordered the anti-graft watchdog to arrest them after hearing the arguments of the defence counsel and the NAB prosecutor.

While the defence counsel denied the charges against the accused, the NAB prosecutor informed the court that there was sufficient evidence against them and their bail pleas were liable to be rejected.

Mr Memon confined himself to the SHC building to avoid arrest as his lawyers made a last-ditch attempt to get the bail cancellation order suspended to enable him to move the Supreme Court. The defence counsel made a verbal request to this effect but the same was rejected by the bench.

Former PPP minister stays put at SHC building for six hours to avoid capture after cancellation of bail plea; Bilawal slams arrest

NAB personnel had to wait for about six hours to arrest him as he was not coming out of the court building, where no arrest is made as per tradition.

Provincial ministers Jam Khan Shoro, Nasir Hussain Shah, Imdad Pitafi and Fayyaz Ali Butt and office-bearers of the Peoples Lawyers Forum also reached the SHC after the rejection of Mr Memon’s bail.

Rangers personnel were deployed outside the court to maintain law and order as the former information minister’s supporters chanted slogans.

In a bid to avoid arrest, Mr Memon’s lawyer also filed an application in the accountability court — where the corruption reference against him is pending — requesting it to restrain NAB from arresting his client, but it was too late as court timing was over.

Finally, Mr Memon decided to surrender and came out of the SHC building where he was arrested by a NAB team.

NAB officials said the former minister and other accused would be produced before the accountability court on Tuesday to obtain their physical remand for interrogation.

The bureau had filed a reference against the PPP lawmaker and 17 others for alleged embezzlement of funds in the Sindh government’s advertisement campaigns on electronic media, causing a loss of Rs5.76bn to the national exchequer.

According to NAB, the investigation was conducted into corruption and corrupt practices in the campaigns on TV and FM channels between July 2013 and June 2015 and it was found that the accused acted in connivance with each other.

Later, NAB formally announced the arrest of dozen suspects who, they said, were involved in embezzlement of more than Rs5bn.

“The accused persons jointly and severally in connivance with each other have been alleged for awarding the contracts to favour certain advertising agencies and to their own favour, in violation of relevant laws and rules and against exorbitant rates,” said a NAB statement. “The accused persons are charged for embezzlement of Rs5,766,479,766 purportedly paid to seven advertising agencies for awareness campaigns between 2013 and 2015. The arrested accused persons will be produced before accountability court tomorrow [Tuesday].”

Apart from Sharjeel Memon, the other arrested accused included Zulfiqar Ali Shalwani, former secretary of information and archives department; Mansoor Ahmed Rajput, the department’s former deputy director (advertisement); Sarang Latif Chandio, former information officer; and Altaf Hussain Memon, the department’s former section officer.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2017