ISLAMABAD: One of the accused in the money laundering case lodged in Malir jail has challenged in the Islamabad High Court the warrant issued by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for his arrest in connection with the purchase of a plot in Karachi.

The anti-graft watchdog had issued a warrant for the arrest of Abdul Ghani Majeed, son of Omni Group tycoon Anwar Majeed, last week for illegally purchasing a plot in the Nehr-e-Khayam area of Clifton.

In the petition, Mr Majeed contended that the NAB authorities had issued call-up notices at his residential address despite knowing that the petitioner was lodged in the district jail, Malir, in another case.

“Call-up notice of the petitioner to appear on January 29, 2019 and the warrants of arrest even procured from the petitioner from the chairman [of] National Accountability Bureau by deputy director and director general [of] NAB Karachi without bringing true facts to the chairman…hence warrants of arrest is liable to be set aside,” the petition argued.

New bench constituted as CJ Minallah recuses himself from hearing the petition

The petitioner pointed out that the Supreme Court had held that NAB did not have the authority to interfere in purely contractual matters and the allegations levelled against him was contradictory to the principles laid down by the apex court in the case related to misuse of authority.

The petition was fixed before a two-judge bench of the IHC comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurganzeb.

However, Justice Minallah recused himself from hearing this case. Subsequently, the IHC registrar office fixed the case before another division bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani.

The IHC bench will hear the petition on Feb 18.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2019