KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday granted interim bail to a former inspector general of Sindh police in a corruption reference.

The former provincial police officer Ghulam Haider Jamali through his lawyer moved an application seeking pre-arrest bail in a reference — one of two similar cases — filed by the National Accountability Bureau against him and other police officials about alleged corruption in the funds of Sindh police.

After a preliminary hearing, a two-judge bench of the SHC headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro granted interim bail against a surety bond of Rs1 million.

NAB had also named the former assistant inspector general (finance) Syed Fida Hussain Shah, AIG (logistics) Tanveer Ahmed Tahir, another former AIG (logistics) Faisal Bashir Memon and other officials as accused in the reference.

The first corruption reference had been filed by NAB last year against former Sindh police IG and other police officials for allegedly making illegal appointments by misusing their authority in Sindh Reserve Police (SRP) Hyderabad during 2013-14 which caused a loss of Rs500m to the national exchequer.

The reference is pending trial before an accountability court in Karachi.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2018