By Tahir Siddiqui
KARACHI: Interior Minister Rehman Malik was granted protective bail in two corruption references by the Sindh High Court.
He filed separate constitutional petitions in the SHC seeking transitory and protective pre-arrest bail to avoid possible arrest because the Lahore High Court had dismissed his appeals against his conviction in absentia in the same cases on Monday.
A division bench comprising Justices Amir Hani Muslim and Syed Zakir Hussain granted the bail in the sum of Rs100,000 each in the two cases “to enable him surrender/appear before the Accountability Court-IV, Rawalpindi, on or before May 22 to face proceedings”.
Mr Malik, a close ally of President Asif Ali Zardari, appeared in the court along with Advocate Akhtar Hussain.
On Monday, the president using his discretionary powers pardoned Mr Malik hours after the LHC had dismissed his appeals.
Advocate Akhtar Hussain submitted in the court that Mr Malik was in Karachi in connection with the President’s visit and he feared he would be apprehended on his way to Islamabad.
He said the petitioner was entitled to protective pre-arrest bail to approach the court to face proceedings on NAB references (91/2004 and 92/2004).
Advocate Hussain said that the references against the minister had been filed in 1997 and 1998 on the basis of cases registered by the Federal Investigation Agency of which he was additional director-general at the time.
He said Mr Malik had been tortured in custody and he survived a murder attempt. He was forced to leave the country along with his family and they took refuge in London.
The counsel said that subsequently an accountability court in Rawalpindi, without following the legal procedure, declared him a proclaimed offender.
He said that neither notices nor non-bailable arrest warrants were issued to him.
On Jan 7, 2004, an accountability court awarded him a three-year sentence in absentia under Section 31-A of the NAB Ordinance of 1999 without holding an independent trial.
The first reference is based on an FIR accusing Mr Malik of receiving two cars worth Rs1.798 million from Toyota Central Motors in Karachi through deputy director Wasim Ahmed as an illegal gratification for purchase of official vehicles by the FIA worth tens of millions of rupees.
The second reference was based on a case registered by the FIA on the complaint of one Hashim Raza of Lahore that Mr Malik along with additional director Mohammad Sajjad Haider and others raided his house in August 1994 and looted 20 tolas of gold jewellery and Rs700,000.
The complainant alleged that two persons in civvies snatched $20,000 from his brother when they transported him from the Lahore airport to the FIA office after his arrival from the US.
Source: Dawn
Date:5/19/2010
