FIA, NAB insist banking court can’t hear Anwar Majeed, son’s bail pleas

Court awaits SHC's guidance over NAB’s plea for transfer of case

KARACHI: A banking court adjourned the hearing of the bail pleas on Wednesday of Omni Group owner Anwar Majeed and Abdul Ghani Majeed in the mega money-laundering scandal and issued notices to counsels for the accused for arguments over National Accountability Bureau (NAB)'s plea.

The NAB prosecutor appeared before the court to oppose the bail pleas filed by the accused. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) prosecutors Bakhtiar Channa, Malik Mumtazul Hassan, counsels for the accused Muneer Bhatti and Advocate Shaukat Hayat also appeared before the court. FIA prosecutor argued that the option of transferring the case to Islamabad was being considered therefore bails should not be granted. The case has to be tried according the Supreme Court (SC)'s orders.  The case is being transferred from one province to another and is based on the Joint Investigation Team's (JIT) report. This court does not have the authority and jurisdiction to grant bails after the orders of SC, said the prosecutor.

Advocate Hayat said that the NAB chairman himself had approached the SC to transfer the case to Islamabad while Advocate Bhatti argued that the word 'considered' had been used for the transfer of case in NAB's plea. Hence, the plea filed by NAB was not a stay order and the banking court had complete authority to grant the bails.

The court said that that should wait for a clear order from the SC. To this, Advocate Hayat argued that FIA and NAB should be asked what is wrong in hearing the bail pleas. Prosecutor Ahsan argued that it would be a violation of the SC's orders if the court granted bails and the SC's orders were very clear for which NAB was completing formalities.

The court said that they didn't have the files related to the investigation so how could they proceed with the case. Counsels for the accused said that the investigation officer should be summoned and asked about the progress of investigation. Court said that SC hadn't passed any orders regarding the banking court hearing the pleas. Accuseds' counsels argued that this had no connection with the apex court orders while the FIA prosecutor maintained that the case had been transferred to Islamabad already but only the formalities were left. How could the bail pleas be heard when the case has already been transferred? The bail plea filed by Hussain Lawai is under trial in Sindh High Court (SHC). The orders of SHC in this case should be waited for, the prosecutor said.

After the arguments of accused, FIA and NAB prosecutors, the court observed that they should wait for the SHC's orders related to the bail pleas as the higher court can provide them with guidance. To this, the accused's counsels said that the accused have health problems and they should at least be provided the facility of a medical check-up by the jail authorities. The court adjourned the hearing of bail pleas till February 14.



The petition related to the request of NAB to interrogate AG Majeed. The banking court inquired that in which case the NAB wanted to interrogate. The investigation officer said that an NOC from this court was required, on which AG Majeed's counsel argued that the banking court did not have the authority to give custody of case to NAB.

The investigation officer said they wanted to interrogate AG Majeed in a case related to the illegal allotment of Nehr-e-Khayyam's land. Accused's counsel said that they would be ready for defence if the court issued the notice. Court inquired that if the arrest warrants of AG Majeed were present or not. The investigation officer replied that NAB had issued the arrest warrants. Court further inquired that is there any precedent about the custody of an accused in this manner. Advocate Hayat said that yes, SC had issued the notice regarding the custody to the accused at the time of General Pervez Musharraf's emergency.



Court restricted FIA prosecutor to give arguments over the issue of custody saying "you do not have this authority. NAB prosecutor can himself give the arguments over it."

Published in The Express Tribune, February 7^th, 2019.