ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected two bail pleas of Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) leader and former Sindh information minister Sharjeel Inam Memon, who is facing a corruption reference involving Rs 5 billion irregularities in the distribution of government’s advertisements to the electronic media and FM radio stations.
A three-member Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Justice Dost Muhammad Khan and Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Minakhel heard the pleas.
In one plea, Memon sought pre-arrest bail, whereas in another plea, he sought a bail after arrest. Rejecting the appeals, the court held that both the appeals stood anfractuous as the accused had already been arrested.
The court asked Sardar Latif Khosa, senior counsel for Memon, to approach the respective sub-ordinate courts or high court for the post-arrest bail.
Latif Khosa contended that the NAB had no authority to arrest his client at this stage, adding that it (NAB) violated its own law by arresting Memon at the first instance. “By arresting my client at the first instance, the NAB has proved that it was applying its law differently in different provinces,” Khosa contended.
He contended that the other accused facing the cases of similar nature in Islamabad were moving freely and even visiting abroad, whereas his client was put behind the bars, which was a discriminatory attitude, portraying double standards of the anti-corruption watchdog.
He requested the court to grant relief to his client like the ousted premier Nawaz Sharif and former finance minister Ishaq Dar, who are facing the corruption references; however, moving freely.
The court also rejected the bail pleas of co-accused Inam Akbar, who is owner of Midas (Pvt) Ltd, a media advertising agency and Muhammad Yousaf Kaboro, deputy director in the Sindh information Department.
Counsel for Yousaf Kaboro contended that his client was forced by Sharjeel Memon, being the minister, to sign the advertising bills. Justice Dost Muhammad Khan remarked that Kaboro should have refused to commit illegality.
The officials of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested Inam Akbar and Yousaf Kaboro from the court premises just after rejection of their bail pleas.
The court also issued notices to NAB on the applications of two other co-accused Basharat Mirza and Iqbal Z Ahmad, who have challenged issuance of their non-bailable arrest warrants.
A NAB prosecutor contended before the court that the real beneficiary of the corruption was Inam Akbar, being the owner of advertising agency. He stated that Yousaf Kaboro misused his official position and signed bogus bills.
Earlier on November 25, Sharjeel Memon had moved the Supreme Court against the Sindh High Court (SHC) decision to reject his bail in a reference pertaining to the award of government advertisements at exorbitant rates through the abuse of his official powers.
In his appeal, he had pleaded for grant of bail contending that NAB had no evidence against him, thus his arrest was in contradiction with the accountability laws.
Memon was taken into custody by NAB on October 23, when SHC had rejected his bail plea in the corruption case. In a previous hearing of the case, the NAB had said that it investigated corruption and corrupt practices in the award of advertisements against the law and at exorbitant rates to TV channels and FM radio stations for various awareness campaigns between July 2013 and June 2015.
It said it had found that the accused acted with the connivance of each other, resulting in huge losses to the national exchequer.
Sharjeel Memon is also facing a separate reference regarding illegal adjustment and consolidation of hundreds of acres of land in favour of a private housing project in Karachi.
Published in Daily Times, January 3rd 2018.
