KARACHI, June 28: A division bench of the Sindh High Court, consisting of Justice S. A. Sarwana and Justice Mujibullah Siddiqui, quashed on Friday two criminal prosecutions filed by NAB against Muhammad Rafiq and Muhammad Hanif.

The petitions arose out of a prosecution launched by the NAB chairman on the ground that government properties owned and held by cooperative banks, under the control of the Sindh government, were fraudulently and dishonestly disposed of by the chairman of the Sindh Provincial Cooperative Bank (the late Khowaja Muhammad Jafri) with the connivance of Rafiq and Hanif, who were in the building business and allegedly acted as abettors/associates.

It was alleged that an old building situated in Serai Quarters, Karachi, with an area of 1,015 square yards was sold and disposed of in favour of the firm Ghulam Muhammad & Co., allegedly owned by the two accused, at a throwaway price of Rs13.9 million against the actual value of Rs35 million.

Khalid Anwer, advocate, appearing on behalf of the accused, had argued that the accountability court No 4, before which the case was pending, had wrongly rejected the application filed before it for acquittal of the accused.

It was further argued that the trial judge was not entitled to proceed on the basis of the confession of Abba Hussain, who was an approver. It was argued that Abba Husain’s confession was recorded in violation of law. He had already been granted a pardon by NAB, so his confession could only have been recorded as the statement of a witness under oath and subject to cross-examination by the accused.

Thus it was contended that there was a violation of section 164 of CrPC. On the basis of this argument the court held that the confession of Abba Husain could not be treated as a valid confession or as a valid statement. Once the confession was disregarded then the question arose what was the other evidence against the accused.

In this connection, Mr Anwer pointed out that the contract was awarded to the accused not by the late Khowaja Muhammad Jafri, but by the Board of Directors of the Bank on the recommendation of a sub-committee appointed by the Board.

The recommendation of the sub-committee was unanimous, but NAB chose not to prosecute either the members of the sub-committee or the members of the Board of Directors and merely targeted the two accused and a dead man, namely Khowaja Muhammad Jafri, the former chairman. Under these circumstances, the division bench held that this was a fit case for quashment under section 561-A of CrPC.