SC ruling on corruption

It will help change the opinion that holds one is virtuous only when one commits corruption. In a ruling on July 2, CJP Asif Saeed Khosa asserted that persons convicted of corruption will have to pay their fine even after their death. The verdict assumes special significance in the context of the ongoing actions against corruption. The justice made the remarks during the hearing of a case relating to a sentence awarded to a former government servant who had been found guilty of owning assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. He referred to an earlier SC judgment that states that anyone guilty of corruption will have to pay the fine, even if they serve additional time in jail. The CJP asserted that the “the money [looted through corruption] must be returned even if the person [who is guilty of corruption] is dead.”

Mohammad Khan Bhatti, a cashier in Quetta district commissioner’s office, owned properties worth more than Rs1.9 million beyond his known sources of income. He was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment with a fine of Rs15m by a trial court and the decision was upheld by the Balochistan High Court (BHC). He served another two years in prison instead of paying the fine. In a later decision, the BHC ruled that since he had served additional time in jail, he did not have to pay the fine and returned his properties that had earlier been seized. NAB challenged the decision in the SC. During the July 2 hearing, Justice Khosa said the BHC had misunderstood the SC judgment. When the convict argued that he had already served seven years in jail, the CJ said, “After serving seven years in jail, have your properties [purchased by money earned through corruption] become legal? Fine will have to be paid even if the prison sentence has been served.”

We hope the verdict will go a long way in eliminating corruption that has made life of the common man a veritable hell.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 4^th, 2019.

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