ISLAMABAD: The Islam­abad High Court (IHC) on Thursday granted pre-arrest interim bail to former finance minister Miftah Ismail and a suspect in the video leak controversy while hearing two different petitions.

A division bench of the IHC, comprising acting chief justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, restrained the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) from arresting Mr Ismail in the LNG import case.

The same bench also granted interim bail to Nasir Janjua, who was nominated as an accused by the former accountability judge Mohammad Arshad Malik in the video leak case.

Judge Malik, in the First Information Report (FIR) registered under various sections of Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) with Cyber Crime Reporting Centre of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), claimed that his old acquaintance Mian Tariq secretly made his allegedly “immoral video” while he was serving as additional district and sessions judge of Multan and sold it to some people belonging to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

Suspect in leaked video involving accountability judge also gets bail

The judge further alleged that “a group of people including Nasir Janjua, Nasir Butt, Khurram Yousuf and Mehr Ghulam Jilani started to put pressure on me to help Mian Nawaz Sharif, who was earlier convicted by me in a NAB reference”.

Judge Malik had convicted Mr Sharif in the Al Azizia reference and sentenced him to seven-year imprisonment on December 24 last year.

According to the judge, “due to fear of exposure of the Multani video” he met Nawaz Sharif in Jati Umra on April 6, this year and Hussain Nawaz in Saudi Arabia on June 1. “Nasir Butt pressurised me to get his assistance in preparation of the grounds for appeals in Al Azizia and Flagship references.”

In the petition, Mr Janjua stated that primarily there were three allegations which bring the case within the ambit of PECA: (i) securing video of some person, (ii) releasing the said video through any mode i.e. social media or otherwise in public, (iii) utilisation of the said conversation /video/recording etc in any manner derogatory to the provision of law on the subject.

His petition claimed that “all the above allegations are not attracted or not even levelled to the extent of petitioner”.

After hearing the petition, the IHC bench issued a notice to the FIA and adjourned the hearing of the petition till July 30. The court also granted interim bail to Janjua against Rs200,000.

The same bench also granted Miftah Ismail, the former finance minister, interim bail till Aug 1. The bench also sought reply from NAB on Ismail’s petition by that date.

In the petition Ismail stated that “despite no new evidence having come forth, nor any new discovery been made, without any change whatsoever in the status of the enquiries by the NAB, out of the blue, the petitioner had now been issued a new call-up notice dated July 15, 2019, by NAB in connection with inquiry against the authorities, including minister for petroleum and natural resources, the secretary concerned and others regarding illegal award of LNG Terminal-1 to Engro Energy Terminal Private Limited (EETPL)”.

In the petition, Mr Ismail said that he had worked as the non-executive director/chairman of the board of directors of the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) from Oct 30, 2013, to Oct 18, 2017, when the LNG deal was being finalised.

“In his role as a non-executive chairman, the petitioner as per standard practice relied upon the advice and recommendations received from the board of directors, from the executive or from the Inter State Gas System (ISGS), the agency responsible for carrying out the tender process,” the petitioner stated.

Mr Ismail claimed that he was not responsible “for evaluating any bids received and did not share in the executive responsibilities of due diligence as my role was merely of non-executive director”.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2019