MULTAN, Oct 29: A local civil court extended for the third time the remand of the madad committee patron in police custody on Tuesday.

The police formally admitted arrest of Tahir Sharif on Oct 21, and produced him before a court the next day. The police had sought his 14-day physical remand, but the court granted only a three-day remand. However, the court extended his remand for another three days on the next date of hearing on Oct 25.

On Tuesday, the police demanded further physical remand arguing that they had to make recoveries from Tahir. On the court query that what they had so far done, the police said Rs35,000 in cash had been recovered from Tahir besides the disclosure of his immovable property worth Rs500,000.

It is interesting to note that on the one hand, the police are claiming recovery of only Rs35,000 in cash from Tahir, while on the other the district committee for the affectees has been disbursing amounts among the depositors claiming being paid through the amount recovered from Tahir and his bank accounts. So far, more than Rs10 million have been disbursed among some 1,500 madad committee victims.

Another lot of 436 victims will be made partial payments against claims of their deposits with the madad committee.