BHC dismisses Gichki’s bail plea

The Balochistan High Court (BHC) on Monday dismissed a bail plea filed by provincial secretary Imran Gichki, who was also the staff officer of former chief minister Nawab Muhammad Aslam Raisani.

A division bench headed by BHC Chief Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and comprising Justice Rozi Khan Barech announced the decision.

Deputy Prosecutor General NAB Balochistan Jaffar Raza represented the anti-graft watchdog in court.

Accountability Court Quetta Judge Aftab Ahmed Lone had imposed a fine of Rs80 million and sent Gichki to prison for five years in a case pertaining to accumulation of illegal assets worth millions of rupees.

After the verdict, Gichki was arrested and sent to jail. Later, the accused resorted to BHC in a bid to seek dismissal of the accountability court’s decision and bail. However, BHC rejected the plea of the accused.

The investigation against Ghichki revealed that he had accumulated properties worth millions of rupees in Islamabad and other parts of the country.

He has also served as the secretary of sports and culture recently. The NAB spokesperson noted that Gichki is the second Balochistan secretary after Mushtaq Raisani who was arrested in a corruption case.

NAB raided his residence in Islamabad’s posh area and seized a huge quantity of gold, ornaments, and foreign currency. Later, a reference was filed in the court.

After a trial of the case, the accountability court convicted the accused, besides confiscating the cash and gold recovered from his home.

The court, however, is yet to announce its judgment on the properties of the convict, which he had allegedly kept in the names of his relatives and benamidars.

Earlier in May 2021, an accountability court in Quetta sentenced former Balochistan finance secretary Mushtaq Raisani and former finance adviser Khalid Langau to a total of 12-and-a-half years in prison in a mega corruption case pertaining to embezzlement of millions of rupees.

The court had ordered to confiscate all their assets worth billions of rupees and disqualified the convicted criminals under Section 15 of the Accountability Act. Raisani and Langau will also not be eligible to hold any government post for at least 10 years now.

This was the biggest corruption case in the history of Balochistan province.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2022.