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| April 25, 2006 | Tuesday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 26, 1427 |
Saad Rafiq, Zaeem granted bail
LAHORE, April 24: A Lahore High Court division bench on Monday granted bail to PML-N MNA Khwaja Saad Rafiq, Punjab general secretary Zaeem Qadri and 12 workers in one of the six cases registered under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
The bench granted them the bail in a case of setting a portion of the Punjab Assembly building on fire. The case was registered by the Qila Gujjar Singh police.
The court will take up their bail petitions in other cases on Tuesday.
Advocate Rana Mashhood submitted that the direct involvement of Mr Rafiq, Mr Qadri or any worker could not be established. He submitted that even the complainant had not involved them in the arson case as he had levelled charges against a mob and not against any of the participants in the rally against the blasphemous caricatures.
The PML-N leaders were taken back to the jail under tight security. They have been lodged in Camp Jail in six cases registered by as many police stations charging them with arson of the public and private property on Egerton Road during Feb 14 violent demonstrations.
WATTOO’S PLEA: A division bench of the Lahore High Court was constituted on Monday to hear a petition through which former Punjab chief minister Manzoor Wattoo has pleaded for his acquittal in a reference.
Comprising Justice Mohammad Bilal Khan and Justice Mohammad Nawaz Bhatti, the LHC bench will hear the petition by the end of this month which challenged the decision of a local accountability court under which the same plea was dismissed last month.
Mr Wattoo, now a central vice-president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, has pleaded in his petition that by paying off the amount allegedly misappropriated by him, he had met the legal requirement of Ehtasab law of 1997.
He stated that when the reference against him was filed under the old law, he could not be punished in accordance with the new provisions of the law.
It may be pointed out that the LHC in an earlier decision did not agree to an identical plea by co-accused Malik Haider Usman and S M Bashir and barred them from participating in any political activity for 10 years.
Mr Wattoo stated in the petition that the old law provided that a politician did not earn disqualification after he had paid the amount allegedly misappropriated by him from the public fund as it had no plea bargain provision.
The NAB stated the accused could not be given the benefit of previous law as he was being tried under the existing law. Mr Wattoo did not opt for plea bargaining and pleaded for trial under the new law which had no provisions for acquittal on the refund of the embezzled amount.
Mr Wattoo is facing the charge that he, along with the two other accused, misappropriated the Baitul Maal funds for personal use during his tenure as provincial chief executive in 1994.
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