KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) was informed on Monday that the provincial government has constituted a committee to determine fate of the cases transferred from the accountability courts to the provincial anti-corruption courts after amendments in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Ordinance.

However, a two-judge bench of the SHC headed by Justice Omar Sial observed that the trial courts/ anti-corruption courts should regulate the custody of accused persons in the first instance in such cases so that petitioners or others could approach the trial courts, seeking removal of their name from the no-fly list or other reliefs.

A former director general of the Karachi Development Authority (KDA), Syed Masood Haider Jaffery, had petitioned the SHC, seeking removal of his name from the exit control list (ECL) for treatment abroad and de-freezing of his two bank accounts.

The petitioner was among several officials and private persons who had been named as accused persons in a graft reference filed by the NAB in 2016 against former petroleum minister Dr Asim Hussain and others for allegedly getting plots allotted fraudulently and encroaching upon state land for expansion of his hospital/ trust, money laundering, receiving commission through a fertiliser cartel for illegal curtailment of gas for exploitative price hike.

Bench asks trial courts to hear pleas for removal of applicants’ name from ECL, etc, till the decision of committee

The counsel for the petitioner argued that his client’s name was placed on the ECL and his bank accounts were also frozen on the request of the NAB and thereafter, the reference in question was transferred from an accountability court to an anti-corruption court of Karachi in March last year after the amendments in the NAB law.

The bench observed that references/cases had been transferred from accountability courts to anti-corruption courts due to amendments, but apparently, those references had not been reached the courts concerned yet.

Consequently, people like the petitioner find themselves in limbo and are constrained to file petitions in the SHC to seek relief.

“We have been informed, however, that Sindh government vide notification No. SOR (GSA & CD) 2-14/98 dated 08.04.2025 has constituted a committee to determine, amongst others, the fate of the cases transferred from accountability courts to the anti-corruption courts. We believe that the learned trial court itself should regulate the custody of the accused in the first instance, and hence the current application seeking removal of the petitioner’s name from the exit control list should be made before the trial court,” the bench in its order added.

It also said the issue of frozen bank accounts should also be determined first by the trial court.

It also noted that apparently, the decision on whether or not the case/reference against the petitioner and others would be pursued by the provincial government was imminent after the formation of the committee.

“The petitioner should wait till the decision of the committee. If the government decides not to pursue the case, the petitioner may approach this court for relief he seeks. If the case continues before anti-corruption court, the petitioner should approach that court with the relief he seeks,” it concluded.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2025