PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday extended the interim pre-arrest bail granted to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader retired Captain Mohammad Safdar over an ongoing inquiry by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) regarding his assets.

A bench consisting of Justice Lal Jan Khattak and Justice Syed Arshad Ali turned down an objection raised by the counsel for Mr Safdar to the hiring of a senior lawyer, Sattar Khan, by the bureau and allowed him to appear on its behalf in the case.

The private counsel representing the NAB submitted certain documents having a chart mentioning properties allegedly owned by Mr Safdar, who is a son-in-law of former prime minister and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif.

The bench directed him to provide a copy of that chart to Mr Safdar’s lawyers for their response if needed.

Rejects his objection to NAB’s private counsel

It later adjourned the hearing into the petition of Mr Safdar seeking pre-arrest bail, while the interim bail granted to him was extended until the next hearing to be fixed later.

Lawyers Abdul Lateef Afridi and Mudassir Amir appeared for the petitioner, while the NAB was represented by senior special prosecutor Mohammad Ali, deputy prosecutor general Azim Dad and Sattar Khan.

The counsel for the petitioner contended that an identical inquiry had already been started by the NAB Lahore against their client that was amounted to double jeopardy prohibited under Article 13 of the Constitution.

They said the NAB should be asked how many identical inquiries it had been conducting against the petitioner.

Barrister Mudassir said the entire case was based on mala fide intent and political victimisation and that the bureau wanted to arrest the petitioner at any cost.

He said the NAB had initially given a list of 12 properties to the petitioner seeking explanation about them.

“My client had provided all required information to the investigation team, so no justification has been left for his arrest,” he said.

The lawyer also produced the documents related to the said properties saying everything required has been explained to the bureau.

The NAB’s counsel produced certain documents carrying a chart purportedly of different properties owned by Mr Safdar saying his assets were disproportionate to known sources of his income.

The bench observed that the documents didn’t carry signatures of any official. It asked the lawyer to produce the signed document and provide its copy to the counsel for the petitioner.

Barrister Mudassir said his client was a former MNA elected from Mansehra and the NAB had been probing his assets since 2018.

He said an earlier petition of his client was disposed of by the high court in 2019 with the direction that the bureau could not arrest any suspect without issuance of an arrest warrant.

The lawyer said when his client’s arrest warrants were issued and the high court granted interim bail to him, the NAB began an identical inquiry in Lahore to frustrate the court’s order.

He also objected to the hiring of a private counsel by the NAB saying it is the violation of a 2016 Supreme Court judgment, which prohibited the hiring of private counsel in presence of government prosecutors.

However, the NAB’s counsel contended that under Section 8 of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, a private lawyer could be hired for appearing in cases on behalf of the bureau.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2021