PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Monday granted interim pre-arrest bail to former federal minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz provincial chief Amir Muqam and stopped the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) from arresting him during an ongoing inquiry regarding his assets.
A bench consisting of Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Justice Mohammad Nasir Mehfooz directed the petitioner, Amir Muqam, to furnish two surety bonds valuing Rs1 million each.
It fixed Mar 31 for the next hearing into the petition seeking pre-arrest bail for the PML-N leader.
The bench directed NAB Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s director general to file comments in the petition.
Barrister Mudassir Amir appeared for the petitioner and said few days ago the NAB’s chairman had issued warrants of arrest of his client while probing his assets.
When the bench wondered why the copy of the arrest warrants wasn’t attached with the petition, Barrister Mudassir said he had already filed an affidavit with the court that the said arrest warrants were issued and that he had that information on good authority.
High court seeks NAB reply to bail plea of PML-N leader
He said the bench could issue notices to the respondents, including the NAB chairman and provincial director general, for response.
The lawyer said though his client had provided all documentary evidence regarding his assets, the NAB continued to harass and intimidate him by first issuing call-up notices to him and later issuing his arrest warrants.
He requested the bench to grant pre-arrest bail to the petitioner until the final conclusion of the case before the trial court.
Barrister Mudassir contended that last year, the high court had disposed of an identical petition in light of a Supreme Court ruling that on basis of a call-up notice a suspect could not be arrested and the NAB had to issue a prior arrest warrant at least 10 days before the intended arrest and to convey the same to the suspect.
He said the NAB had challenged the said order of the high court and had filed leave to appeal petition before the Supreme Court, which has yet to be decided.
The lawyer said although the judgment of the high court was valid, the NAB chairman had issued his arrest warrants and his client had been kept in dark about that.
He said his client had established a family business firm under the name of the AM and Co and the firm had an average yearly profit of Rs524 million.
Barrister Mudassir said the NAB had initiated the inquiry against the petitioner in 2016-17 and in pursuance of the same, the petitioner received a call-up notice from an investigation officer of the bureau, regarding assets beyond known sources of income.
He said his client visited the office of NAB on Aug 2, 2018, and was handed over an Assets Declaration Performa with directions to submit the same on or before Aug 15, 2018.
The lawyer saidhis client informed the investigation officer during a meeting that his assets were purchased from time to time by the utilisation of funds generated by the family’s firm through government projects acquired after passing through the due process that could be easily confirmed by the relevant government departments.
He said call-up notices were issued to his client on other occasions.
The lawyer said the value of all assets purchased in the name of his client and his family members since 1989 came to Rs701.239 million, while the income of the firm in the last eight years exceeded the Rs1.637 billion mark, which was more than twice the value of the assets.
Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2020
