Sharjeel announces his return by Oct-end

Sharjeel Inam Memon, once an influential and high-profile provincial minister who is now facing multi-million- rupee corruption charges, has announced that he would return to Pakistan by the end of the current month.

In a tweet, Memon, the former Sindh information and local government minister and currently an MPA of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party, announced his return to the country by the end of October to face what he described as “false and fabricated” cases against him.

The former minister has made this announcement after an accountability court recently issued his non-bailable warrants to ensure his appearance before it on October 19.

Two former provincial ministers, Sharjeel Memon and Owais Muzaffar, have been out of the country for the last several months because of the federal accountability agencies’ probe against them in connection with corruption charges and land scams.

A few days back, the National Accountability Bureau had filed a reference against Memon and 10 others in the accountability court of Karachi. The court has accepted the reference for hearing. The people named in the reference are accused of corruption worth Rs5.76 billion. Six of them have already obtained pre-arrest bail in the case. NAB officials have said 11 accused including Memon are yet to be arrested.

 

Corruption case bail

The SHC granted interim protective bail to the owner of an advertising company accused in a Rs5 billion corruption case.

The agency owner, Syed Naveed, is one of several co-accused in a NAB corruption reference against former information minister Sharjeel Inam Memon, information department officials and advertising companies representatives.

The reference pertains to illegalities in the process of awarding contracts worth over Rs5 billion for official Sindh government awareness campaigns for the electronic media. 

The petitioner contended in court that he was not among the beneficiaries of this scam as his company only worked as a sub-contractor for mainstream advertising agencies. 

His counsel submitted that other co-accused had also acquired protective bail in the case and the same be provided to his client. The court granted the interim protective bail request and directed Naveed to surrender before the trial court within seven days.