ISLAMABAD, Oct 5: The Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court on Thursday suspended the jail sentence of former National Assembly speaker Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani and ordered his release on bail.

Mr Gilani had been arrested in 2001 on charges of misusing his official position and illegally recruiting people. He had been incarcerated in the Adiala Jail on the orders of National Accountability Court after being found guilty of illegally recruiting about 600 people.

The former NA speaker had filed an application in the Rawalpindi bench of the superior court praying that his jail sentence should be suspended and he should be released.

On the second day of the hearing on Thursday, the bench comprising Justice Abdul Shakoor Paracha and Justice Syed Sajjad Hussain Shah accepted his bail application, suspended his jail sentence and released him on bail.

The petitioner’s counsel, Aitezaz Ahsan, told the court that 352 people had been recruited, 286 of whom were in BPS 1-16. He contended that the NA secretary was empowered to make the appointments. The remaining employees were in grade 17 and above and the speaker had the authority to appoint them. The appointments had also been approved by the NA secretary, he argued.

He said the people appointed had been working till now and none of them had been dismissed which proved that rules and regulations had been followed in making the appointments. Had the recruitments been illegal, the people would have been dismissed, he maintained.

Mr Ahsan also brought to the notice of the bench that Wasim Sajjad was then chairman of the senate and he had also made numerous appointments on his own but no case had been framed against him. It was because of Mr Sajjad’s switching over to the government side. This was a proof that the charges against Mr Gilani were aimed at politically victimising him, he argued.

NAB’s senior prosecutor Abdul Basir Qureshi argued before the court that Mr Gilani continued issuing appointment slips for his favourites, most of whom were his relatives, friends and constituency of Multan. No specific tests, interviews as required for recruitment had been held which showed that favouritism was the base of the appointments, he claimed.