Accountability court judge Bashir given additional charge in place of Malik

Ministry of Law stopped Arshad Malik from working as an accountability court judge last week

ISLAMABAD: Accountability Court-I Judge Muhammad Bashir was given on Monday additional charge of Islamabad’s Accountability Court-II.

The IHC Registrar Office sent a letter to the Ministry of Law on the directives of IHC Acting Chief Justice Aamer Farooq, recommending that the cases heard by the Accountability Court-II judge Arshad Malik might also be transferred to Bashir.

The ministry stopped Malik from working as the accountability court judge after the PML-N unveiled a video in which he confessed to be blackmailed into convicting former premier Nawaz Sharif in Al-Azizia case.

Bashir, in a landmark verdict, had sentenced Sharif to 10 year imprisonment last year in the Avenfield corruption reference, a case of amassing assets beyond one's known sources of income.

Other high-profile cases, including the fake bank accounts case against former president Asif Ali Zardari and others, are also under proceeding in his court.

According to a notification issued in this regard, Bashir will serve on the post till the appointment of permanent judge, and get a 20 per cent extra allowance for holding the additional charge.