Court rejects NAB plea for permission to question Sharjeel Memon at headquarters

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An accountability court on Saturday disapproved the National Accountability Bureau’s plea to move interned former Sindh information minister Sharjeel Memon to the bureau’s headquarters from jail for questioning him about making assets beyond income.The Accountability Court-III judge, who heard the matter as substitute for the Court-I judge, directed the anti-graft watchdog to conduct the interrogation with the former minister inside the Central Jail Karachi, where he is being kept in judicial custody.NAB had sought an NOC from the court to arrest Memon again and shift him to its headquarters, stating that his custody was required for questioning him about an ongoing investigation pertaining to accumulating assets beyond known sources of income.Already two persons, Izhar Hussain and Sohail Ahmed, have been arrested in connection with the investigation. According to NAB, the suspects have revealed information about the illegally acquired properties of Memon in DHA and SITE areas.The judge asked the NAB prosecutor why it was necessary to arrest the former minister and move him when the investigators could grill him inside the jail for questioning.The prosecutor said that the jail authorities did not allow them do so as court orders were needed for this.He asked the court to issue the NOC and referring to a Supreme Court order said that the trial court was obliged to grant it to ensure a smooth running of investigation affairs. The judge replied that a link court could not hand over the custody of a suspect under trial by another court.The defence counsel argued that according to the law a jailed suspect could not be given into the custody of any investigating agency so any questioning would be done inside the prison.He said that NAB was hiding facts from the court and was not giving any evidence about why they needed to interrogate his client.The judge, after listening to arguments from both the sides, rejected the NAB request to move Memon and ordered that he would be grilled inside the jail for questioning.Memon is already facing a trial on charges of embezzlement of public funds to the tune of Rs5.76 billion.He is accused of misusing his authority as information minister and illegally awarding advertisement contracts to different newspapers, channels and agencies at exorbitant rates.Notice out for KamalAn accountability court on Saturday issued notices to Pak Sarzameen Party chairman Mustafa Kamal and a dozen others over a reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau against them for allegedly illegally selling an amenity plot to real estate developers in Clifton.The plot, measuring over 6,000 yards, situated between Abdullah Shah Ghazi shrine and Bagh Ibn-e-Qasim, was supposed to be given to sea-shell hawkers to set up stalls, but it was illegally sold to builders at below the market price to make a high-rise, according to NAB.The bureau has named former city nazim Kamal, Dawood Jan, Iftikhar Qaimkhani, Fazal Rehman, Nazir Zardari, Muhammad Yaqoob, Muhammad Irfan, Mumtaz Haider and Muhammad Rafiq among others as suspects.According to the anti-graft watchdog, Kamal approved the commercial status of the plot after which it was sold to DJ Builders, which later sold it to another builder. It added that the price of the plot was shown to be Rs260 million while it valued more than Rs2.5 billion.It said that first the plot was divided into 198 stalls, to be handed over to hawkers, but no implementation was carried out. Later in 2007, the plot was amalgamated into one and sold off to DJ Builders. In 2014, the plot was sold to another building.NAB maintained that the whole process was illegal as neither the status of the plot could be changed nor a building higher than one-storey could be built on it. It added that the suspects using their influence caused a huge loss to the national exchequer.The court approved a reference for hearing and issued notices to the suspects to appear in court and file comments. The complaint was moved to the NAB by the Transparency International Pakistan in 2015.

from The News International - Karachi http://bit.ly/2IZPSUE
The News International - Karachi