KARACHI: Jail authorities on Saturday shifted back former information minister Sharjeel Memon to prison from a hospital and another case was registered against him, this time under the Hudood Ordinance, a day after his bail application was dismissed by the Supreme Court in a NAB reference.

Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar earlier paid a surprise visit to Ziauddin Hospital in Clifton, where he found three bottles of liquor in the room of the ex-minister who told the CJP that the bottles did not belong to him.

On the complaint of jail officials, the Boat Basin police later registered an FIR against incarcerated Memon, his driver and two servants under Section 4 (owning or possessing intoxicant) of the Zia-era law, The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order (4 of 1979), according to SSP South Omar Shahid Hamid.

The section under which the case has been registered reads: “Whoever owns, possesses or keeps in his custody any intoxicant shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term, which may extend to two years, or with whipping not exceeding thirty stripes, and shall also be liable to fine.”

SC disposes of suo motu proceedings against PTI MPA who slapped citizen

The SSP said the police seized the bottles given to them by the jail officials and sent them to the forensic lab for an examination. He added that the police investigators also obtained DVR footage from the hospital.

At the hearing of several cases at the Supreme Court’s Karachi registry along with two other judges, the CJP narrated the details of his visit while expressing serious resentment over the state of affairs in the province.

The authorities later also ended the status of the sub-jail of the hospital room where the detained lawmaker had been under treatment, said DIG Prisons Nasir Aftab.

Just a day ago, the SC had dismissed the former minister’s application seeking bail on medical grounds in the NAB reference after the bureau’s prosecutor opposing the plea argued that the applicant had been hospitalised since May 19 and the provincial authorities had notified his room as sub-jail. NAB had filed the reference against the former minister and others for allegedly committing corruption in award of advertisements of government-run awareness drives in the electronic media that had allegedly caused a loss of around Rs3.27 billion to the national exchequer. The former minister landed in prison in October 2017 after a division bench of the Sindh High Court dismissed his interim pre-arrest bail application.

On Saturday, the CJP also visited the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) where some suspects in a money laundering case are reportedly under treatment.

While responding to questions about the CJP’s visit to hospitals and the recovery of liquor bottles allegedly from Mr Memon’s room, former president and PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari before attending a court hearing dubbed it as a wrong choice of priorities.

“I know there are some 5,000 cases or maybe hundreds of thousands of cases are pending before the Supreme Court. The focus should be on this issue,” he said in reply to a question.

“What can we say in a country where the chief justice conducts raids?” he added.

Asked about the incident during her visit to district hospital in Makli, Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho said: “The jail administration is responsible for any infiltration of contraband into jails or sub-jails.” Hospitals being run by the health department were responsible to provide proper treatment to the patients being brought there, she added.

SC disposes of case against PTI MPA

The apex court disposed of suo motu proceedings against Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) MPA Dr Imran Ali Shah for beating up a man on a road and directed him to deposit Rs3 million in the Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand Dams Fund within 15 days.

The victim, Dawood Chauhan, informed the SC bench that he had not received a single penny from the PTI’s member of the provincial assembly in compensation. Yet a campaign had been launched on the social media against him that he had forgiven him by taking the money, he complained.

The CJP took suo motu notice of the incident days after a video showing PTI’s MPA physically attacking Mr Chauhan had gone viral on the social media.

On Saturday, the CJP warned the PTI MPA that a case could be lodged against him as it was an offence against public. He also came down hard on Mr Shah multiple times over his attitude in the courtroom. He said such lawmaker must be behind the bars or he should be slapped four times in public in the same way. “You should be ashamed of yourself,” the CJP remarked.

The court directed him to deposit Rs3 million in the Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand Dams Fund within 15 days after the victim forgave him and disposed of the suo motu proceedings.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2018