KARACHI, July 29: A division bench of the Sindh High Court dismissed on Tuesday bail applications moved by two bank fraud case accused facing trial before the special court for offences in banks.

The applicants said they had committed no offence and had been implicated in the case by the former employer of one of them to cause harassment and intimidation. Only an interim charge-sheet was presented in the case in February and it was not known when the final challan would be submitted to set the court proceedings in motion. They would be able to defend themselves properly if released on bail. They said there was no likelihood of their evading the legal process.

Contesting the bail plea on behalf of the Federal Investigation Agency, standing counsel Syed Ziauddin Nasir submitted that the crux of the charge against the accused — Saqib Hussain, former accountant of Kaghan Trading Company and its sister concern M/s Capital Chemical, and co-accused Ejazur Rahman — was that they opened a fake bank account in the name of Waheed Niazi. They stole three cheques belonging to the two companies and withdrew Rs4.8 million by affixing fake signatures on them.

Besides the company staff, the counsel said, the accused had been identified by the bank employees concerned. Their bail plea had been rejected by the trial court, he added.

ELECTION PETITION: A Sindh High Court election tribunal asked an election officer on Tuesday to produce the result of recount of ballots in NA-239 (Keamari, Karachi) in a tabulated form on August 1.

The recount was ordered by the tribunal, which consists of Justice Zawwar Hussain Jaffery, on a request by petitioner Iftikhar Hussain, who contested the October 2002 polls on a PPP ticket.

He was defeated by the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal’s Qari Gul Rahman and challenged the balloting and counting of votes. But for rigging and irregularities, he said, he would have won the poll. He also claimed that a recount would yield a different result and wipe out the lead of some 537 votes obtained by his rival.