0
KARACHI, Sept 1: The Sindh High Court issued a notice to the regional office of the National Accountability Bureau in a petition moved by an estate agent standing trial in corruption cases along with former revenue minister Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh.
Petitioner Abdul Hafeez Shoro submitted through Advocates Raja Qureshi and Fareed Ahmed Dayo that Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim was out to victimize him for his alleged complicity with the ex-minister.
He was currently on bail but apprehended his arrest any time in a ‘blind’ first information report.
He requested the court to restrain the police from re-arresting him and order it to produce a list of cases registered or pending against him.
The petitioner alleged that he was arrested in mid-February and confined at the CM’s house. Later, he was shifted to the Anti-Corruption Establishment office. A magistrate recovered him from a bathroom of the office during a raid conducted by him on a court order.
He was compelled to incriminate Imtiaz Shaikh in statements over media and before the prime minister’s inspection team.
He complained that while action had been taken against him, no inquiry had been instituted into his allegations against the CM.
Besides the bureau, he cited the CM, his secretary, the Anti-Corruption Establishment, the IGP and other police officers as respondents. A division bench, comprising Justices Mushir Alam and Mohammad Afzal Soomro, directed that a notice be issued to the NAB regional office for Sept 13.
CONVICT ACQUITTED: Another division bench, consisting of Justices M. Mujibullah Siddiqui and Khilji Arif Hussain, acquitted an appellant convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by an anti-narcotics court.
Advocates M. Ashraff Kazi and Jan Mohammad Khuhro stated on behalf of appellant Zainuddin that he and co-accused Daud were convicted for having in their possession over five kilograms of charas. They were arrested by the anti-narcotics force in a raid on a hotel but the hotelier stated in his testimony before the trial court that no raid, seizure or arrest was made at the premises. Co-accused Daud, who was also jailed for life, was given the benefit of the doubt by the high court in appeal and was acquitted earlier in January. The rule of consistency demanded that Zainuddin should also be let off.
Allowing the appeal, the bench ordered that the appellant be released if not required in any other case.
PLEA DISPOSED OF: A division bench, comprising Justices Ghulam Rabbani and Azizullah M. Memon, meanwhile, advised a petitioner to approach the home secretary against the detention of his son, who allegedly belonged to Sipah-i-Sahaba, an outlawed militant organization.
The bench observed that the law (the Anti-Terrorist Act) provided for the remedy of representation to the home secretary against arrest and detention. Petitioner Shakir Khan must first make a representation to the secretary against confinement of his son, Kashif Khan, before moving the high court in its extraordinary jurisdiction. It directed the home secretary to pass an order on the representation .
