An accountability court in Lahore on Friday granted the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) 12-day physical remand of Jang Group’s Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakilur Rehman in a property case.
The court had originally granted NAB an 11-day physical remand but extended it by a day when Rehman’s counsel Aitizaz Ahsan said that he will not be available for proceedings on March 24.
Rehman was arrested by the anti-corruption watchdog when he appeared before it in a 34-year-old case related to 54-kanal land he allegedly acquired illegally in the tenure of then chief minister of Punjab Nawaz Sharif.
During the hearing, Aitzaz Ahsan vehemently opposed NAB’s request for physical remand, saying that NAB’s ‘attitude towards Mir Shakilur Rahman is based on maliciousness’. Ahsan termed his client’s arrest a day earlier as illegal, arguing that Rehman was cooperating with the accountability watchdog. “Mir Shakilur Rehman is not running anywhere but NAB did not hear his stance and arrested him,” Ahsan said. “[PML-N’s] Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was also arrested by NAB in the same manner,” he said. “On Thursday, Rehman had brought answers of the questions asked by NAB. He was arrested illegally,” the defence lawyer declared, adding that Rehman was taken into custody because of his ‘criticism’. “How can the NAB chairman issue arrest warrants without even looking at Mir Shakilur Rehman’s case file?” he questioned.
The NAB prosecutor countered Ahsan’s arguments by insisting that Rehman was arrested after fulfilling legal requirements.
After his appearance before the NAB team in Lahore last week, Rehman had said he had bought the land in question from a private party and no illegality had been committed in this respect. However, according to NAB, Rehman had been arrested in connection with alleged illegal exemption of 54 plots (each measuring one kanal) in H-Block of Jauhar Town Phase-II allotted to him being the holder of general power of attorney on behalf of Hidayat Ali and Hikmat Ali by the then Punjab chief minister (Nawaz Sharif in 1986) in violation of the relevant laws/rules.
On Thursday, Rehman had appeared before a joint investigation team of NAB at its Lahore headquarters at Thokar Niaz Beg and answered its queries for more than two hours. However, later NAB arrested him as he reportedly failed to satisfy the investigators.
The NAB has outrightly rejected the allegations levelled by the Jang Group, saying that NAB strongly believes in performing its duties as per law and constitution of Pakistan. In a statement, an anti-graft watchdog spokesman termed the allegations concocted, fabricated and baseless, adding that NAB adheres to the policy of considering only cases sans caring about the status of the accused. He said that NAB vehemently believes in freedom of media and will continue its national duties of taking action against the corrupt without caring about any propaganda, pressure, browbeating and threatening.
The statement said Mir Shakilur Rahman will be presented before an accountability court in Lahore on Friday for remand, adding that NAB will plead its case in the court as per law.
The NAB also asked media to avoid speculations about the watchdog or its cases and get its version from spokesman before broadcasting/publishing any news about it in the light of judgement of the Supreme Court of Pakistan in Arshad Sharif case.
