• Former CS’s bail plea

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday set aside the conviction of an accused sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for 14 years for possessing explosive material.

An appellant bench of the SHC ordered the release of Saeed Nabi if he was not required in any other case as the prosecution could not prove the charges against him.

The appellant, who was arrested by the Saudabad police on Feb 10, 2015, was convicted by an antiterrorism court in the case.

According to the prosecution, the police had seized a hand-grenade from him.

Former CS’s bail plea

An SHC division bench headed by Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M. Sheikh put off the hearing of a bail application of former chief secretary Siddique Memon directing his counsel to forward his final arguments on the matter on the next date of hearing.

The former chief secretary, a career bureaucrat now in grade-21, had obtained anticipatory bail after the National Accountability Bureau served him a call-up notice for investigation against him for allegedly allotting six acres in Karachi illegally in 1992 when he was the land utilisation secretary.

Scores of key provincial and city government officials and politicians have secured pre-arrest bail fearing their arrest after NAB issued notices to them to join investigations against them. They include Sindh Minister Syed Ali Mardan Shah, former provincial information minister Sharjeel Inam Memon, administrator of the Sindh University Employees Housing Society Barkat Ali Junejo, information secretary Zulfiqar Ali Shalwani and several officials of the provincial revenue department.

Mr Memon in his bail application contended that the land was allotted in 1992 and regularised in 2008 under the relevant laws. He submitted that the land was neither allotted nor regularised by him.

He said he was posted as secretary for land utilisation, and when certain facts came to his knowledge he sent the matter to the lands committee which said it had already regularised the land.

The former chief secretary said he was issued a call-up notice under Section 19 read with Section 27 of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 (NAO, 1999), on Aug 24.

He said the contents of the notice were highly defamatory and derogatory as it was mentioned that the competent authority had taken cognizance of an offence committed by the petitioner as ex-secretary of the land utilisation department.

The petitioner said he was asked to appear and record his plea with record and information. “It is beyond comprehension that in absence of any plea as also record and information, the competent authority has taken cognizance of an offence allegedly committed by the petitioner,” he said.

He said the land, Sector 52-A, Corridor area, Scheme-33, Karachi East, was allotted for residential/commercial purposes with the approval of the chief minister in favour of Mohammad Ayub, son of Sher Khan, and the first instalment of Rs968,000 was deposited in the National Bank of Pakistan, District Council branch, on Oct 13, 1992.

Later, he recalled, all allotments/grants made in violation of the law or ban at the rates lower than the market value from Jan 1, 1985 were cancelled.

However, the former chief secretary said, the cancelled grants were allowed to be regularised by a land committee, headed by a retired judge of the SHC.

He said the land committee issued regularisation orders on settlement of payment of the differential cost by the allottee.

He said it was apparent from the record that the NAB authorities were well aware of the regularisation of land by the lands committee, yet in an attempt to cause harassment, undue arrest and humiliation to the petitioner, NAB issued the notice.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2017