KARACHI: The police remand of former federal minister Dr Asim Hussain was on Monday extended for one week in a case pertaining to providing treatment and harbouring ‘terrorists’ at his hospital.

The administrative judge of the antiterrorism courts, Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto of the Sindh High Court, also allowed the National Accountability Bureau to investigate Dr Asim in police custody in a corruption reference.

A legal team of Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, also submitted a notification issued by the home department stating that Advocate Mushtaq Jahangiri, a lawyer for the paramilitary force, had been appointed a special public prosecutor in the case.

As the four-day police remand granted earlier ended on Monday, the investigation officer of the case, Inspector Rao Zulfiqar, produced Dr Asim, a close aide to former president Asif Zardari, before the administrative judge and sought an extension in his custody.

The IO submitted that the extension was required for further questioning, taking his fingerprints and collection of other evidence.

NAB investigator Zameer Abbasi also moved an application seeking custody of the suspect stating that Dr Asim was shown arrested in a corruption reference on Sunday and his custody was required for questioning.

However, the defence team comprising Anwar Mansoor Khan and Amir Raza Naqvi said that NAB could not arrest the suspect without the permission of the court as he was already in police custody.

Judge asked NAB to question the former federal minister in police custody in a corruption reference against him

They informed the judge that their client was produced before a judicial magistrate earlier in the day for the statement of a witness. They said that the IO as well as the Rangers officers remained present inside the court of the judicial magistrate during the statement of the witness, but Dr Asim’s lawyer was forced to leave the courtroom.

They contended that there was no legal justification for the manner in which the investigation of the case was being conducted as the witnesses were being pressured to testify.

The IO, however, claimed that Dr Asim sent his attorney out of court and said he would himself cross-examine the witness.

When the administrative judge asked the suspect if he wanted to say something, a visibly disturbed Dr Asim remained silent.

The judge extended the police remand till Dec 7 and also allowed NAB to join investigations and question Dr Asim in police custody.

Magistrate records witness’s statement Before his production in the SHC, Dr Asim was brought to the city courts amid strict security of Rangers. He was produced before Judicial Magistrate (central) Ali Akbar who recorded the statement of witness Dr Yusuf Sattar against him under Section 164 of the criminal procedure code.

Dr Sattar is the chief operating officer of Dr Ziauddin Hospitals.

Court sources said that the magistrate sealed the statement and the document would be unsealed at the time of trial.

They said that in his statement Dr Sattar supported the contents of the FIR and said that alleged terrorists and militants belonging to different political and criminal groups were treated at discount rates and given shelter on the pretext of treatment at the two branches of the hospital on the directives of Dr Asim, who is the chairman of Dr Ziauddin Group of Hospitals.

The sources said that Dr Asim did not cross-examine the witness.

They said that Dr Sattar was also picked up by the Rangers during a raid at the hospital.

The SHC was told in September that the paramilitary force had taken Dr Sattar in custody after conducting a raid at the hospital but later released him after interrogation.

On Nov 25, following the end of his 90-day preventive detention, Rangers had handed over Dr Asim to police after lodging an FIR against him for allegedly treating and harbouring terrorists at the North Nazimabad and Clifton branches of his hospital at the behest of political leaders.

According to the FIR, lodged on the complaint of Rangers superintendent Inayatullah Durrani, Dr Asim confessed before a joint investigation team to having provided treatment to alleged terrorists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and gangsters of Lyari at his hospital and harboured them after MQM leaders Waseem Akhtar, Rauf Siddiqui, Anis Qaimkhani and Saleem Shahzad and Qadir Patel of the PPP had allegedly asked him to do so. The alleged terrorists had suffered wounds during shootouts with Rangers and police, it added.

The FIR also accused the former petroleum minister of making appointments in the state-owned Pakistan State Oil and Sui Sothern Gas Company and awarding contracts by accepting graft.

The case against him was registered at the North Nazimabad police station under Sections 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence or giving false information to screen offender), 202 (intentional omission to give information of offence by person bound to inform), 216 (harbouring offender who has escaped from custody whose apprehension has been ordered), 216-A (penalty for harbouring robbers or dacoits), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant or banker, merchant or agent) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code, read with Sections 21I (aid and abetment), 21-J (harbouring any person who committed an offence under this act) and 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.

Rangers picked up Dr Asim Hussain, the incumbent chairman of the Sindh Higher Education Commission on Aug 26 in Clifton. The following day Rangers informed an ATC that he was placed under three-month preventive detention for inquiry as per Section 11-EEEE of the ATA since they had credible information about his involvement in using embezzled funds to finance terrorism.

Published in Dawn, December 1st, 2015