ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued the bail granting order for Editor-in-Chief of Jang Group of Newspapers Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman in a 34-year-old plots reference with certain conditions.

A three-page order authored by Justice Mushir Alam, who headed the SC bench which heard Mr Rehman’s post-arrest bail application, directed him to furnish a bond of Rs10 million with two sureties.

Mr Rehman will also have to surrender his passport to the trial court and the competent authority may place his name on the Exit Control List (ECL) to ensure he regularly attends the proceedings and face the trial in the reference.

Supreme Court issues bail order

The order stated that Mr Rehman was arrested on March 12 — almost three months before initiation of the reference. It is the case of the petitioner that the reference was filed against four persons, including the then chief minister of Punjab Nawaz Sharif who was a co-accused, against whom proceedings under Sections 87 and 88 of the Criminal Procedure Code are in progress. Two other co-accused — then director general of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) Humayun Faiz Rasool and then director land development of the LDA Mian Bashir Ahmed — are still at large and no action has been taken against them.

The order said the petitioner’s counsel Mohammad Amjad Pervez argued that Mr Rehman had not conceded any concession against the law as many other persons were given similar treatment and the amount of excess land was already recovered in 1987 and no dues were outstanding.

The claim that was being pressed was based on a subsequent change in the policy effected in 1992, the order said.

Additional Prosecutor General of the National Accountability Bureau Haider Ali stated that Mr Rehman should be asked to surrender his passport and his name might be placed on the ECL to ensure that he continued to face the trial.

Published in Dawn, November 11th, 2020