HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad circuit bench of the Sindh High Court on Thursday suspended jail terms of four education officers, who were sentenced to varying terms by an accountability court in a case of illegal appointments involving Rs27.48 million corruption, and granted them bail for a sum of Rs500,000 each.

The division bench comprising Justices Abdul Maalik Gaddi and Adnanul Karim Memon further directed the accused to submit their passports to the court and said their appeals against the sentence would be heard accordingly.

Accountability court judge Inam Ali Kalhoro had sentenced the officers to three to five years imprisonment on Sept 9 and also directed them to pay a total fine of Rs31.87m. Three of the accused are serving officers while one is retired.

The appellants Jalil Ahmed Lashari, Kamla Devi, Kewal Ram and Abdul Azeem Khan who were represented by Ayaz Tunio, Asif Talpur and Ishrat Lohar argued that hearing of appeals by the petitioners would take time due to heavy backlog of cases at this circuit.

They said that there were bright chances of acquittal of petitioners on merit because the impugned judgement of trial court was a result of misreading and non-reading of evidence.

They said that the petitioners were on bail during the trial and were not able to misuse such concessions. Ms Kamla was pardoned from attending the court on the ground that she was old and retired aged 66 years with weak health and the petitioners had been sent to jail since the pronouncement of judgement. They were all suffering from diseases which were not curable inside the jail, they said.

They requested the court to suspend the sentence during pendency of criminal accountability appeals.

NAB special prosecutor opposed the request and contended that the prosecution had established its case against the petitioners in trial court and they were convicted on the basis of evidence and documents on record.

Judge Gaddi wrote in the order: “We are inclined to suspend the sentence as it (the sentence) is a short one and hearing of appeals would take time due to backlog of cases.”

The court ruled that observations made in this order would have no bearing on the outcome of appeals which would be decided on merit based on evidence and documents on record.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2020