SHC rejects bail plea of former vice chairman of FCS

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday dismissed the bail petitions of former Fishermen’s Cooperative Society (FCS) vice chairman Sultan Qamar Siddiqui and co-accused in corruption references, but directed the trial court to conclude the cases within four months.

Siddiqui and assistant manager Riaz Ahmed along with former FCS chairman Nisar Morai and others have been facing corruption references in an accountability court over charges pertaining to the misuse of authority, embezzlement of funds, illegal awards of contract and illegal appointments that allegedly caused losses of over Rs343 million to the national exchequer.

The petitioner’s counsel submitted that the petitioner was taken into custody on April 30, 2018, and had already served two years in prison without the completion of the trial. He submitted that no delay had been caused on behalf of the petitioner and only a few witnesses had been examined so far. He asked that the petitioner should be entitled to bail on hardship ground as there was no likelihood that the trial would end in the near future.

A special prosecutor of NAB opposed the grant of post-arrest bail, submitting that no fresh ground of hardship had been made in the petitions and requested the court to dismiss the petitions.

A division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha observed that one reference against the petitioner was assets beyond known sources of income in which six cases would be examined.

The court observed that there was no reason why these references could not be decided in a reasonable period if an appropriate direction was issued to the trial court for the conclusion of the trial when the accountability court judge had assumed the charge and was fulfilling his responsibilities.

The court observed that the relevant accountability courts were now up and running. It did not consider the delay in the petitioner’s cases at this point in time to be shocking or unconscionable and dismissed the post-arrest bail petition.

The court directed the trial court to examine all material witnesses first, hear each reference on a day to day basis, not to allow any adjournment on any flimsy ground and to complete both the trials of the petitioners within four months.