LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday allowed interim pre-arrest bail to PML-N Punjab president Rana Sanaullah Khan in an inquiry into alleged assets beyond means being conducted by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

A two-judge bench comprising Justice Ali Baqar Najafi and Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh granted bail to Rana Sana subject to two surety bonds worth Rs500,000 each and also sought a reply from the NAB by March 25.

Mr Khan, also a sitting MNA and former law minister, appeared before the bench along with his counsel Azam Nazir Tarar and Amjad Pervez.

To establish mala fide intention behind the impugned inquiry, the counsel stated that the petitioner had hardly reached home after getting bail in a ‘fabricated’ drug case when he started receiving call-up notices from the NAB asking him to appear before its combined investigation team (CIT) to explain his assets.

He said the petitioner appeared before the CIT whenever he was summoned and informed the investigators that all his assets had already been scrutiniSed and frozen by Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) in the drug case.

He submitted that the petitioner extended his full cooperation to the CIT and asked it to furnish any link between his corruption and his assets. However, he claimed, not an iota of evidence could be presented to the petitioner by the bureau.

Advocate Pervez argued that the NAB chairman and his officials were not competent to assume jurisdiction in view of the pendency of proceedings in the drug case before a special court.

He said there was a possibility that the NAB would arrest the petitioner at the behest of the government. Therefore, he said, the petitioner be granted pre-arrest bail.

Later, talking to the media outside the court, Rana Sana said the NAB had been used for political victimisation of the opposition. He said there had been a tradition that the NAB summoned a person in one case and arrested him in some other.

He said the government was not capable of bringing the country out of the crises it was faced with. He regretted that the whole government was stuck in the health matter of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

He said midterm election had become necessary to save the country from incompetent rulers.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2020