HYDERABAD: A single judge bench of the Sindh High Court Hyderabad circuit, comprising Justice Salahuddin Panhwar, on Wednesday issued reduced surety amount of a bail granted to district treasury’s sub-accountant and PPP Hyderabad district information secretary Ahsanullah Abro from Rs10m to Rs5m.

Abro, sub-accountant in the Districts Accounts Office (DAO) Hyderabad, was arrested in Sept 2024 in a general provident fund (GPF) embezzlement case in the DAO by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and was remanded to judicial custody. The case was transferred to the Special Judge Anti-corruption (Provincial) which granted him a post-arrest bail last year in December.

Anwar Rajput, Abro’s counsel, had filed a criminal revision application before the court to challenge order of the Special Judge Anti-corruption (Provincial) which had granted bail to Abro in a sum of Rs5m each in cash and surety bound in the shape of saving certificates on Dec 19,2024.

The counsel contended that the applicant being a poor person was unable to arrange two sureties to submit special saving certificate due to his monetary compulsion, therefore, he sought reduction in the sureties to one solvent surety instead of two.

The court noted that since the applicant was granted post-arrest bail on merits, therefore, it would not serve purpose if the applicant remained in jail without any justification. The court observed that the additional prosecutor general (APG) Sindh was not in a position to justify the same.

The court accordingly modified the impugned order and applicant is allowed to furnish a solvent surety in a sum of Rs5m instead of two to the satisfaction of trial court as described in the impugned order.

The applicant had filed criminal revision application before the high court, arguing that he was granted post-arrest bail for two solvent sureties in a sum of Rs5 million each and another surety in the shape of saving certificate on Dec 19.

He said the applicant had remained in jail after his arrest for six months. He said that reference for embezzlement of Rs83,654,922 was filed, but no liability was fixed on the applicant.

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2025