ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday upheld the post-arrest bail granted by an accountability court to the son-in-law of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in the London properties case.

A division bench, comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, rejected the appeal filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for cancellation of the bail granted to retired Captain Mohammad Safdar.

The NAB prosecution in November last year had filed the petition in the IHC requesting that Mr Safdar may be sent to jail on judicial remand after cancellation of the bail.

The accountability court on Sept 14 summoned Mr Safdar but he did not appear before the trial court. On September 26, the court issued his bailable warrants.

However, Mr Safdar did not appear before the court on a subsequent hearing on October 2 for which the accountability court issued his non-bailable arrest warrants.

The petition stated that upon his arrival from abroad on October 8, a NAB team arrested Mr Safdar at the Benazir Bhutto International

Airport and produced him before the accountability court on October 9 with a request to remand him in judicial custody.

However, the court granted him post-arrest bail on submission of Rs5 million surety bonds against Section 9(b) of the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999 under which an accused caught under the scheduled offence of NAO could only apply for bail in the high court, said the petition.

It said the trial court had no power to release the accused after he had been taken into custody in pursuance of non-bailable warrants.

The trial court wrongly assumed that the accused was entitled to bail since the offence was non-bailable and when the accused appeared before the court he was in the custody of NAB.

The petition alleged that Mr Safdar did not appear before the court on various dates of hearing and avoided the process of law and tried to hamper the proceedings which are to be concluded within a specified period of six months.

Arguing before the court, Amjad Pervez, the counsel for Mr Safdar, said if the accused appeared or was brought before the court he can execute bonds under Section 91 of the Criminal Procedure Code. He said the purpose of issuing non-bailable warrants was to ensure that the accused attended the trial.

Justice Kayani remarked that it was clear that bail was not required if someone appeared or was brought before the court, undertook to face trial and continued to appear before the court.

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2018