KARACHI, March 9: The Sindh High Court allowed an accused involved in the Alliance Motors reference to go and stay abroad for a month subject to his furnishing security amounting to Rs 10 million.

A division bench, comprising Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Azizullah M. Memon, also ordered that should Sikandar A. Karim, who is facing trial in the Alliance Motors-TJ Ebrahim case before an accountability court, fail to return within a month, the amount of Rs 10 million he deposited earlier for obtaining bail from the high court, should also be forfeited.

The accused had moved a writ petition against the inclusion of his name in the exit control list through Advocates Farooq H. Naek and Abubakr Zardari. His counsel argued that he had returned to Pakistan voluntarily and was, therefore, unlikely to abscond. He had already been granted bail by the high court in the sum of Rs 10 million and his immovable properties had been attached.

The counsel submitted the accused businessman should at least be given permission to proceed abroad for purposes of treatment and business for one month. They said his case was different from other accused who had absconded by misusing exemptions allowed by the high court.

Opposing the petition and the exemption application, National Accountability Bureau counsel Amanullah Khan submitted that huge deposits made by a gullible public against promises of hefty returns were involved in the Alliance Motors case.

The NAB counsel said a couple of co-accused granted exemption from foreign travel ban had failed to return and were absconding from the trial. None of the attached properties was in the name of accused Sikandar Karim.

His absence would further delay the trial and would stall it should he fail to return. The accountability process was being frustrated by absconders, he said. Federal government counsel Syed Mahmood Rizvi also opposed the petition and the exemption plea.

BAIL GRANTED: The bench also granted bail to former Allied Bank manager Liaquat Ali Bhutto in the sum of Rs 500,000. He is being tried by a special court for offences in banks for allegedly removing, in connivance with a borrower, paddy worth Rs 4.7 million pledged by him with the ABL branch at Larkana. Bhutto himself had lodged the first information report but was found involved during investigation.

His counsel, Abdul Haleem Pirzada, argued that about two years and a half had elapsed since the registration of the FIR but even a charge could not be framed in the case. The maximum punishment for the alleged offence was seven years' jail and the offence was bailable.

Besides, the jailed accused had already been admitted to bail in the sum of Rs 500,000 in another identical case by the high court on account of 'fatal delay' in the trial proceedings.