KARACHI: A local court on Thursday granted bail to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Sindh president Ali Haider Zaidi in a decade-old fraud case after the complainant party did not oppose his release on bail.

Police picked up the senior PTI leader on April 15 from the party office in Defence Housing Authority on the allegations of fraud and extending threats to the complainant.

After completion of his three-day physical remand, the investigating officer produced him before the judicial magistrate (Malir), Ahmed Ali, on Thursday.

The court remanded him in judicial custody. Thereafter, the lawyers for Mr Zaidi moved a bail application and counsel for the complainant filed an application for no objection to the extent of grant of bail along with supporting affidavit of the complainant.

The magistrate in its order observed that since the complainant had no objection and the accused was in judicial remand and not required for further investigation, keeping the applicant behind the bars for an indefinite period would serve no purpose.

“The offences mentioned in the FIR does not fall within the prohibitory clause of Section 497(ii) of CrPC and it is clearly established the case of further enquiry comes within the ambit of Section 497 CrPC,” it added.

Thereafter, the magistrate allowed the bail application subject to furnishing solvent surety in a sum of Rs10,000 and PR bond in like amount to the satisfaction of the court.

The court said that the surety and PR bond had been furnished on behalf of the applicant and directed the jail superintendent of district prison of Malir to release him forthwith if not required in any other case.

However, it directed the former federal minister to appear before the court at the next hearing (April 30) without fail.

According to the FIR and the prosecution, complainant Fazal Ilahi, a property dealer, lodged an FIR against provincial president of PTI and two unidentified persons at Ibrahim Hyderi police station on April 15.

It maintained that both complainant and suspect had been doing real estate business and in 2013 Mr Zaidi got Rs180 million loan from the complainant and in return he gave a file of property/plot as surety whose value was estimated to be at Rs167,500,000 and promised payment of remaining Rs12,500,000 in six months.

The property dealer had asked the suspect several times for transfer of the plot, but the former minister adopted delaying tactics, it added.

The prosecution further asserted that when the complainant attempted to get verification of the property file, it turned out to be fake as there was no record of it while the suspect refused to return the money.

The case was registered under Sections 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code against Mr Zaidi and two unidentified people at the Ibrahim Hyderi police station.

The IO added Section 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust) of the PPC during the course of investigation.

Pre-arrest bail granted to ex-governor, others

A sessions court in Malir on Thursday granted interim pre-arrest bail to former governor of Sindh Imran Ismail, Khurram Sher Zaman and other party leaders in a case pertaining to rioting and deterring public servants from duty on the premises of district courts Malir when Mr Zaidi was produced in court on April 17.

The court granted interim bail against the surety bond of Rs5,000 each till April 30.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2023