HYDERABAD: The Sindh High Court on Thursday granted post-arrest bail to four prime accused in Rs5.8bn Sukkur-Hyderabad (M6) Motorway land scam reference. It, however, ordered in the interior ministry to put their names on exit control list.

The bail was granted in a sum of Rs1.5m each to former Matiari deputy commissioner Adnan Rasheed, manager of a Sindh Bank branch in Matiari Tabish Ali Shah, his counterpart in its Naushahro Feroze branch Mukhtiar Ali Chandio and a private person, Saoodul Haq.

The 13-page order, reserved on April 24, was issued by SHC’s division bench, Hyderabad circuit, comprising Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha and Justice Omar Sial.

The applicants were represented by their counsel Farooq H. Naek, Ishrat Lohar, Arif Kallar and Mohammad Arshad Shar.

Assistant Attorney General Ghulam Abbas Sangi and NAB’s Special Prosecutor Niaz Mirani also argued during the earlier proceedings.

According to the NAB reference, the prime accused and various private persons were found involved in the embezzlement of funds meant for acquisition of land for the construction of M6 by way of ‘dummy awards’ in violation of the Land Acquisition Act.

The defence lawyers sought bail on the ground of statutory delay in accordance with Section 497 Cr.PC as they had remained in jail for 18 months and no delay in trial was caused by them.

NAB special prosecutor opposed grant of bail arguing that the applicants might abscond.

The court noted that initially under the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), 1999 such offences were not bailable … in the last few years, many amendments were made to the NAO and one most significant was that NAO offences were now bailable.

The court said that the applicants were entitled to statutory bail on the grounds of delay in concluding their trial.

It found the argument that “crime was heinous thus bail should be denied on statutory grounds” to be “misconceived”.

The court said the contention that applicants might abscond … could be unfairly used to deny bail to any accused in nearly every case. Even otherwise, measures could be put in place to make any potential absconsion extremely difficult.

While allowing post-arrest bail to the applicants, the court directed the interior ministry to place their names on the exit control list (ECL).

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2024