LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau(NAB) has allowed Jang Group’s Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakilur Rehman to meet his ailing brother Mir Javedur Rehman for a day.

According to NAB, Mr Rehman can travel to Karachi to see his brother but he will remain in the bureau’s custody. “During the physical remand it is the prerogative of the court to give a suspectbail. However, the suspect can file a petition in the court for transitory remand,” a NAB statement said here on Monday.

NAB arrested Mr Rehman on March 12 in a 34-year-old case related to 54-kanal land he allegedly acquired illegally in the tenure of then chief minister Nawaz Sharif. He has been on physical remand till April 7.

In the case, Mr Rehman stated that the property in question had been bought from a private party and all evidence of this had been provided to NAB, including the legal requirements fulfilled like duty and taxes.

NAB alleged that Rehman illegally obtained exemption of 54 plots each measuring one-kanal. It said the allotment of the land had been in connivance with then chief minister Sharif (in 1986) against the exemption policy and the laws formonitorygains.

The NAB Lahore office also sent a questionnaire to Mr Sharif this case and summoned him to the bureau office on March 31 to record his statement.

REPLY SOUGHT: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to submit its reply to a petition by Jang Group editor-in-chief Mir Shakilur Rehman, challenging his arrest and seeking bail in a case of 54 kanal land allegedly allotted to him in 1986 by the then Punjab chief minister Nawaz Sharif.

Earlier, NAB submitted before a two-judge bench its reply to a similar petition by the wife of Mr Rehman against the arrest of her husband in the land case.

Representing the petition, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan argued that NAB had first summoned Mr Rehman on March 3 along with necessary documents. He said the petitioner had asked the investigating team to hand him over a questionnaire so that he could specifically submit his answers.However, the counsel said, the bureau did not do so and summoned the petitioner again on March 12 when he was arrested.

Mr Ahsan pointed out that arrest warrants of the petitioner were issued from the Karachi office of NAB while the investigation was being conducted in Lahore.

He argued that the petitioner was arrested on complaint verification stage, which never happened before in any case. He stated that the trial court did not mention reasons for granting physical remand of the petitioner to NAB.

The counsel said the elder brother of the petitioner was seriously ill and admitted to a hospital in Karachi. He asked the court to release the petitioner immediately.

The bench, however, turned down the plea and observed that the main case would be decided on the next hearing.

The bench adjourned hearing till April 2 and directed a NAB prosecutor to also submit reply to other petition by the media mogul.

NAB alleged that the media tycoon had illegally obtained exemption of 54 plots, each measuring one-kanal, situated in Block-H, Johar Town. It said the allotment of the land had been done in connivance with then chief minister Nawaz Sharif against the exemption policy and the laws for monitory gains. It claimed that no person could get more than 15 kanals land under the exemption policy.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2020