KARACHI, Jan 31: The Sindh High Court adjourned on Tuesday the hearing of a petition moved by former revenue minister Imtiaz Ahmed Sheikh and his brother against their prosecution by provincial agencies at their counsel’s request.

A division bench, comprising Justices Ghulam Rabbani and Zia Pervez, had asked the federal government standing counsel on the previous date to find out whether the petitioner had been exonerated by the prime minister’s inspection team. The petitioners have claimed that the inspection team cleared them of all corruption charges after conducting a thorough inquiry and that the chief minister was wreaking vengeance on them out of personal vendetta.

Advocate Ziauddin Nasir, federal government counsel, informed the bench on Tuesday that he had written to the PM’s secretariat to ascertain the findings of the PM’s inspection team. A response, he said, was likely to be received in due course.

The bench was informed that the petitioners’ counsel, Raja Qureshi, was unable to attend the proceedings and had requested adjournment. The bench asked the federal counsel to place the instructions received by him before it and adjourned the hearing to Feb 7.

Alliance case: Another accused in the Alliance Motors and TJ Ebrahim reference was on Tuesday granted bail by the Sindh High Court in the sum of Rs 50 million.

Dawood Khan is accused of being a beneficiary of the fraudulent transactions made by the liquidated companies by soliciting huge deposits from people on premise of hefty returns. He purchased prime property owned by the companies from co-accused Ilyas Amin.

Appearing for the applicant, Advocates Khwaja Naveed Ahmed and Rahat Ehsan submitted that the applicant was only an innocent purchaser and had nothing to do with operations of the companies.

A division bench, comprising Justices Mohammad Afzal Soomro and Rehmat Hussain Jafri, allowed the application subject to the applicant furnishing security amounting to Rs5 million.