LAHORE: A division\nbench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday adjourned the hearing of Jang-Geo\nEditor-in-Chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman’s post-arrest bail petition in a\n34-year-old property case till July 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the hearing\ncommenced, Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi, head of the bench, asked National\nAccountability Bureau (NAB) whether it had submitted its reply and comments to\nthe petition. The anti-graft body’s special prosecutor nodded in affirmative.\nJustice Sardar Ahmad Naeem was the other member of the bench.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justice Rizvi\npointed out that the required copies of NAB reply were not attached to the case\nfile. He asked as to why only one copy of NAB reply had been presented to the\ncourt, to which the prosecutor, Faisal Raza Bukhari, replied that he had\nsubmitted four copies to the LHC Registrar Office, as the office does not\naccept the reply if its set is not complete. “We will hear the case when\nthe required copies of NAB’s reply and comments are attached to the file,”\nsaid Justice Shahbaz, and ordered the Registrar Office to attach required\ncopies of the NAB’s response to the file. The court also asked the NAB\nprosecutor to submit copies of the bureau’s reply to the LHC officer if already\nsubmitted copies were missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The court asked\nwhether Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman was in the NAB custody on physical remand, to\nwhich his lawyer, Amjad Pervaiz, replied that he had been sent to jail on\njudicial remand. “What material against Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman has been\nbrought forth after April 7?” asked the court. Director Land Development\nBashir Ahmad and DG Lahore Development Authority Humayun Faiz Rasool’s statements\nwere recorded by NAB officials, replied Pervaiz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NAB special\nprosecutor stated that the anti-graft body had also recorded statements of two\nLDA officers, who were in service in 1986. Pervaiz told the court that\naccording to NAB, the investigation against his client had been completed. He\nsaid no evidence against his client was presented. He said all documents had\nbeen provided to NAB, stating that nothing more could be obtained against his\nclient. He urged the court to release Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman on bail. The court,\nhowever, deferred the hearing on the bail petition till July 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the previous\nhearing, Pervaiz had told the court that his client’s 94-year-old mother is\nseriously ill and the court should hear the case soon. NAB had arrested Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman\non March 12 when he made his second appearance before its investigation team.\nHe was sent to jail on judicial remand on April 28 by an accountability court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bureau alleged\nthat Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman illegally obtained exemption of 54 plots each\nmeasuring one kanal in Block-H, Johar Town area of Lahore. The petitioner’s\ncounsel had stated that Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman had been cooperating with\nofficials and the arrest was a flagrant violation of the standard operating\nprocedures (SOPs) of the accountability watchdog. The petitioner said his\narrest was made in abuse of the NAB chairman’s authority, as the arrest was\nmade while the case was still in the process of verification. The petitioner\nargued that NAB had violated the 2019 businessmen policy, introduced by the\ngovernment of Pakistan by arresting Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman. The petitioner’s\ncounsel requested the court to grant post-arrest bail to his client and order\nhis immediate release from jail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newspaper: The News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LAHORE: A division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday adjourned the hearing of Jang-Geo Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman’s post-arrest bail petition in a 34-year-old property case till July 7. As the hearing commenced, Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi, head of the bench, asked National Accountability Bureau (NAB) whether it had submitted its reply […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[4],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9097"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9097\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}