LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday suspended warrants for the arrest of former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry’s son-in-law and an accountability court’s order declaring him a proclaimed offender in the Eden Housing Scheme scam.

Ifra Murtaza, daughter of the former chief justice, pleaded through counsel Asad Manzoor Butt that the NAB mischievously had her husband Murtaza Amjad declared a proclaimed offender by the trial court and later arrested him from Dubai through Interpol.

She said her husband had not been produced before any court of law.

The counsel argued that the NAB procured the impugned orders without filing a reference before the trial court which was mandatory to prosecute a suspect. He asked the court to declare the arrest warrants of the petitioner’s husband illegal and also set aside the trial court’s order to declare him a PO.

Opposing the petition, a NAB prosecutor pleaded that the petition was not maintainable as the petitioner was not an aggrieved party to the case.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan, however, suspended the impugned orders and summoned the investigating officer on Feb 19.

Meanwhile, the bench granted post-arrest bail to two co-suspects of LDA former head Ahad Khan Cheema in the LDA City scam.

Malik Shahzad of Alpha Estate and Mirza Abdul Rashid of Memaar Housing had sought bail on the ground of a settlement with the LDA.

The NAB prosecutor stated that he had no objection if the petitioners were released on bail. However, he urged the bench to grant bail for a limited time period of eight months enabling them to complete the process of land acquisition for the housing scheme. The prosecutor said the NAB would seek cancellation of the bail if the petitioners failed to fulfill their commitment. The bench granted bail to the petitioners subject to two surety bonds of Rs2.5m each.

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2019