Dr Asim case: SHC seeks arguments on petition requesting impartial inquiry

Plea has apparently become infructuous following Dr Asim's release on bail

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) directed on Tuesday former federal minister Dr Asim Hussain's mother's lawyer to argue on a petition seeking an impartial inquiry into the corruption case against Hussain.

SHC Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M Sheikh, who headed the two-judge bench, observed that the petition filed by Dr Ejaz Fatima, the mother of Dr Asim, had apparently become infructuous following his release on bail from prison.

Dr Fatima had approached the court in December, 2015, apprehending that the Rangers might influence the then ongoing inquiries initiated by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and police against her son in cases of corruption and harbouring terrorists respectively.



In the plea, Dr Asim's mother had maintained that the Rangers had denied her son the opportunity to meet his family and lawyer during his 90-day detention. She had also alleged that her son was kept in a dungeon without any light or electricity so as to torture him and extract a false statement out of him.

Dr Fatima had recalled that the SHC's then administrative judge for anti-terrorism courts, Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto, had admitted on November 30 an application by the NAB, allowing them to interrogate her son for corruption while he was in the police custody.

It was pointed out that despite the transfer of Dr Asim's custody to the police, a large number of paramilitary soldiers, who were also complainants in the case against the former minister, were deployed at the police station.



The petitioner had apprehended that in the Rangers' presence, an independent investigation cannot be done by the police. Therefore, she pleaded to the court to issue directives to the authorities concerned to ensure an impartial probe into the allegations levelled against Dr Asim.

Taking up the plea on Monday, the judges observed that the petition seemed to have become infructuous since the petitioner's son had already been released on bail.

However, they directed the petitioner's lawyer, Anwar Mansoor Khan, to argue on the matter today (Tuesday) so that fate of the petition could be decided.