SHC seeks records in KMC appointments case

LG secretary's bail plea will be rejected if he does not appear in next hearing, says court

KARACHI:  

The Sindh High Court (SHC) directed on Monday the National Accountability Bureau's (NAB) investigation officer (IO) to bring complete records on the next hearing of the bail plea of Sindh local government secretary Roshan Ali Shaikh and others accused in a case pertaining to illegal appointments in Karachi Metropolitan Corporation.

A two-member bench, comprising Justice KK Agha and Justice Zulfiqar Ali Sangi, was hearing the bail pleas, where the counsel of the accused moved the court to exempt them from appearing in court due to the ongoing public health crisis.

The court remarked that the interim bail of the accused would be dismissed if they did not appear in court in the next hearing, pointing to the Supreme Court's orders that judicial affairs could not be halted.

The court directed the NAB IO to bring the complete records of the case to the next hearing.

Sentence nullified

Separately, the bench approved the appeals of two convicts awarded life sentences for murdering a factory owner.

The court nullified the life imprisonment sentences handed to the convicts, Suleman and Naveed Baloch, by the trial court in 2012.

According to the police, the accused had kidnapped Muhammad Naeem and demanded ransom for his release.

Upon not being paid, they killed Naeem and dumped his body in an oil drum.

Hearing adjourned

The court also adjourned the bail plea hearing of Adil Zaman, the accused in the Mureed Abbas murder case for an indefinite period.

Justice Arshad Hussain remarked that another bench was hearing the bail plea but the honourable judges were on leave. The court adjourned the hearing till an indefinite period.

At the previous hearing, the court had sought case records from the trial court, which had rejected Zaman's bail plea before he approached the SHC for bail.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th, 2020.