PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday granted interim pre-arrest bail to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader retired Captain Mohammad Safdar over an ongoing inquiry of the National Accountability Bureau, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, against him for allegedly holding assets beyond means.

A bench consisting of Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Mohammad Nasir Mehfooz issued the order over a pre-arrest bail petition filed by Mr Safdar and also directed the petitioner to submit two surety bonds of Rs500,000 each.

It issued notice on the NAB chairman and its regional director general seeking their response to the petition on Nov 4 and adjourned the hearing until then.

A panel of lawyers consisting of Barrister Mudassir Ameer and Abdul Lateef Afridi appeared for the petitioner, who is the son-in-law of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, and said the NAB inquiry or investigation against their client was based on mala fide intent as he had appeared before the NAB combined investigation team on multiple occasions.

PHC seeks NAB’s response to PML-N leader’s bail plea

They said the petitioner had provided the sought-after information to the investigation officers but even then, the NAB chairman issued warrants for his arrest.

The counsel said the petitioner had appeared before the investigation team on different occasions, while a call-up notice was issued to him on Sept 17, 2020, along with a questionnaire and he had responded to it in detail.

They said their client, during a visit to the NAB offices in Peshawar on Oct 8 in compliance with the call-up notice, was given a notice regarding the issuance of his arrest warrants.

The lawyers feared that the petitioner, who was a former MNA, would be arrested and humiliated by the NAB.

The NAB executive board had approved in early 2018 a probe into a complaint sent to the bureau by a citizen that Mr Safdar possessed assets disproportionate to the known sources of his income, a crime under the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999.

The petitioner’s lawyers contended that Section 24 of the NAO empowered the NAB chairman to allow the arrest of a person during inquiry or investigation but that power, which had been vested in him to ensure proper inquiry and investigation, had to be exercised within the parameters set by the law.

They said as all records had been provided to the investigation team and the inquiry/investigation had been completed, there was no need for his arrest.

The counsel said the power of arrest under Section 24 of the NAO was neither absolute nor unfettered and that it had to be exercised fairly and judiciously within the parameters set by the law.

They further said Article 9 of the Constitution declared that the ‘petitioner will not be deprived of his or her liberty save in accordance with the law’.

The lawyers said it was by now settled in light of the superior court judgments that in the absence of some solid and cogent evidence or complaint, the NAB had no authority to harass and torment citizens through vague call-up notices and unwarranted arrests.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2020