Not free yet: Dr Asim gets bail in terrorists’ facilitation case

Co-accused Rauf Siddiqui, Anis Kaimkhani and Usman Moazzam also granted bail; Akhtar’s plea undecided

KARACHI: After a yearlong arrest under charges of facilitating terrorists, former petroleum adviser Dr Asim Hussain was granted bail by the Sindh High Court on Tuesday.

The case relates to alleged sheltering and treatment of terrorists and criminals belonging to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Lyari gangs at his private hospitals.

Besides Dr Asim, MQM’s Rauf Siddiqui, Pak Sarzameen Party’s Anis Kaimkhani and Pasban’s Usman Moazzam were also granted bail, after submitting surety of Rs500,000 each.

The bail of Karachi mayor Wasim Akhtar, another co-accused, was not fixed before the bench. However, Dr Asim as well as the co-accused will remain in the respective custody of law enforcers as they are all nominated in various other cases.

A two-judge bench, comprising Justices Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Abdul Malik Gaddi, also ordered the suspects to deposit their valid passports in the anti-terrorism court (ATC) and forbade them from leaving the country without its permission.

This was the fifth bench constituted to hear the bail applications as all previous ones had declined to hear the bail pleas of the accused.

In its short order, the bench observed: “Though under the law, it is [the] responsibility of the learned trial court to proceed on a day-to-day basis and conclude the trial within seven days but, in this case, all the learned counsel, including counsel for the complainant and special prosecutor, informed that even [a single] charge has not been framed so far. Therefore, the learned trial court is directed to conclude trial within two months.”

However, the judges clarified that this direction does not mean to extend the statutory period already provided under the law but since considerable [period of] time has lapsed without any progress in the trial, therefore, two months’ time is granted to decide the case.

Dr Asim was detained by the Rangers on August 26 last year, which was then seen as a major move against the PPP - owing to his lifelong association with Asif Ali Zardari - during the ongoing Karachi operation as its scope was widened to including terrorists’ facilitation and corruption.

Following his 90-day preventive detention, Rangers handed over his custody to the North Nazimabad police, which registered an FIR (197/2015) against him in November last year.

The complainant, Rangers deputy superintendent Muhammad Inayatullah Durrani, had accused Dr Asim of sheltering and treating injured terrorists belonging to the MQM, PPP and gangs based in Lyari at his private hospitals.

Advocates Anwar Mansoor Khan and Sardar Lateef Khosa had argued that the allegations levelled by the paramilitary force against Dr Asim were ‘bogus and fake’ as they lacked any plausible evidence. They further argued that the prosecution had distorted the evidence as fake medical bills regarding treatment of terrorists and criminals were doctored to frame their client in the case.

However, during the proceedings before the ATC hearing the case, a senior official of Ziauddin Hospital had testified that they had instructions from Dr Asim for free treatment of wounded terrorists belonging to the MQM and Lyari gangs on the directives of Akhtar, Siddiqui, Kaimkhani, Patel and Moazzam.

In a statement issued on after the court decision, Dr Asim welcomed the court decision.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 2^nd, 2016.