KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Friday extended the pre-arrest bail of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Nisar Khuhro for 10 days but the bail is subject to the Accountability Court Sukkur’s confirmation.
“The National Accountability (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2021” promulgated on 07.10.2021, whereby under Section 7, powers, to deal with the bail matters have been conferred upon the courts having been established under NAO 1999,” observed a two-judge bench headed by Justice Naimatullah Phalpoto.
NAB has filed an inquiry against Khuhro over the release of wheat to flour mills in huge quantities against unsecured guarantees when he was the provincial food minister.
According to the initial inquiry, M/s Ranipur Flour Mills, M/s Khairpur Flour Mills and M/s Gopang Flour Mills procured 15,600, 14,120 and 14,024 metric tonnes of wheat from Sindh Food Department, respectively, from the crops of the year 2016-2017 under 180 days credit policy.
However, the three flour mills failed to pay back the amount due over them within the stipulated time and the provincial food department sustained a loss of Rs1,521.077 million on account of the principal amount with an additional loss of Rs142.33 million on account of mark-up.
After initiation of the inquiry, Rs1,280.048 million were recovered from the mills on account of the principal amount and Rs5.440 million on account of mark-up. However, the mills still have to pay Rs241.028 million on account of the principal amount and Rs136.89 million on account of mark-up.
Besides Khuhro, investigations are being conducted against the then provincial food secretary Sajjad Hussain Abbasi, the then director of provincial food department Muhammad Bachal Rahputo and mill owners Rehmaullah Shaikh, Abdul Jabar Shaikh and Waheed Ali Gopang.
Notices issued to NAB, FIA
In a separate hearing, the same bench on Friday issued notices to NAB and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on a petition of former Sindh information minister Sharjeel Memon for the removal of his name from the Exit Control List (ECL).
According to a recent statement of NAB prosecutor Memon faces eight inquiries, investigations and references.
Sharjeel’s counsel, Advocate Kanwar Raj informed the court that his client had been assigned the duty of provincial government’s focal person for a festival scheduled to start in UAE from November 15.
The counsel stated that his client name had been placed on the ECL, however, with the permission of the court he had a couple of months ago travelled abroad and returned within the stipulated time.
The court after hearing the counsel issued notice for a preliminary hearing to the federal government, FIA and NAB.