The Supreme Court on Monday issued a bailable warrants against Brigadier (retd) Hamid Mahmood who was acquitted by the Lahore High Court (LHC) earlier.
A three-member bench of the apex court comprising Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin heard the case.
"Notice shall issue to the respondents through bailable warrants in the sum of Rs1 million each with one surety, returnable to Additional Registrar (Judicial) of this court," said the three-page order authored by Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed while hearing the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) petition against the acquittal of accused persons in the corruption case by the Lahore High Court four years ago.
Also read: 1,405 accused persons convicted so far: NAB chief
It said that the direction issued by the high court for the refund of the amount deposited by Brig (retd) Hamid Mahmood respondent at the time of his release on bail is held in abeyance till the final disposal of the appeal.
Prosecutor Naeem Tariq Sanghera, who appeared before the court on behalf of NAB, adopted the stance that an agreement had been reached in 2004 with a company in Singapore to import 40,000 tonnes of coal for $2.4 million for Nizampur Cement Plant which was managed by the Army Welfare Trust. He said Mahmood had shown himself as an agent of the company.
The prosecutor said that though $2.4 million were transferred for the purpose but the coal was not imported. He said more than $115,000 was credited to the account of Mahmood the next day of payment. The high court without considering this important evidence acquitted the accused, the NAB prosecutor said, adding that Mahmood had also filed an application for a plea bargain.
In 2014, the NAB Rawalpindi court had sentenced Mahmood to prison, which was declared null and void by the LHC in 2017. During this period, the accused had spent eight months in incarceration.
The Lahore High Court had granted bail to Mahmood after the accused deposited money during the trial.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ