KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Monday restrained the National Accountability Bureau from arresting a former SHC additional judge and directed him to cooperate in the investigation.

Salman Hamid advocate through his lawyer moved a petition and submitted that he was a lawyer of Supreme Court and served as additional judge of SHC for two years, adding that NAB sent him a call-up notice to appear in an investigation being conducted against some officials of revenue department for allegedly inserting fake and fabricated entries in the record of rights in respect of 36 acres land in Scheme 33 Karachi.

The petitioner submitted that it was his professional duty to represent his clients in court, but NAB accused him of pursing two suits for the respective parties regarding the land in question.

He requested the court to quash the notice, declare it illegal and restrain NAB from taking any coercive action against him.

NAB alleged in the notice that while representing plaintiffs, the petitioner filed two suits before SHC in 2003 and 2006 revolving around the land in question and both plaintiffs claimed its ownership on the basis of entries of revenue officials, adding that one suit was dismissed as withdrawn as result of compromise while the second suit was still pending.

It maintained that the entries in question were declared fake and cancelled, but till that time the land was sold by one of the plaintiffs Mohammad Ibrahim, adding that there appeared an active abetment on the part of the petitioner in pursing the suits for respective parties while Ibrahim in his statement said that neither he nor his father filed the suits.NAB had asked the petitioner to appear on Dec 10 to record his statement along with any documentary record in support of his plea.

A two-judge SHC bench headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro restrained NAB from taking any coercive action against the petitioner including his arrest, but added that it was subject to the cooperation of petitioner in the investigation. It also issued notice to NAB for Dec 28.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2018