Gilani granted interim bail in 11 corruption cases

KARACHI: The Federal Anti-Corruption Court (FACC) on Monday granted pre-arrest bail till October 12 to former premier and a Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader, Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, in the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) scam case. Gilani was granted bail in 11 cases in the sum of Rs100,000 (each).
A large number of PPP activists, who had gathered outside the court, showered Gilani with rose petals after he was granted pre-arrest bail.
Gilani, while talking to journalists, said that it was his “moral victory” that he was granted interim bail in all the 11 cases “in which he was implicated falsely”. He declared that he had high respects for the judiciary and the courts and would continue to do so.
The court concerned on August 28 had ordered arrest of Gilani, Makhdoom Amin Fahim and others.
Gilani and former federal minister and a PPP leader, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, along with several other former and serving bureaucrats and officials, are facing a multi-billion-rupee TDAP scam pertaining to dozens of corruption cases against them.
Gilani, Makhdoom Amin Fahim and other accused officials of TDAP have been booked in some 23 cases by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for their involvement in the approval and disbursement of fraudulent trade subsidies worth billions of rupees to several fake companies through fictitious claims and backdated cheques during the PPP regime when PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari was president and Gilani headed the government as prime minister.
Gilani and Fahim had been granted interim bail in 12 similar cases last year and were advised to keep appearing in the court. The two later either appeared or their attorneys preferred to move applications seeking exemption from appearance in the trial court due to their other engagements.
Yet a time came when the court did not receive their application and noticing their disappearance from the court it issued non-bailable warrants of arrest in August.
The FIA had also submitted charge sheets in 11 more cases against them and the court had to again issue non-bailable warrants of arrest against the two leaders twice in recent days. Gilani now has been granted pre-arrest bail in 11 similar cases of corruption.
Farooq H. Naek, while pleading the case of Gilani, maintained that the same sort of allegations had already been leveled against his client in 12 cases relating to the TDAP scandal.
Around 70 cases pertaining to a trade subsidy scam against two former chairmen, a former chief executive and other senior officials of TDAP and other individuals are pending before the same court.
Gilani and Makhdoom Amin Fahim were granted bail in 12 cases in different dates last year against the sum of Rs200,000 each in 12 cases dealing with alleged corruption and misappropriation of funds of the TDAP.