Obstruction of justice: FIA bomb hoax accused granted bail
Defence lawyers say official did his duty by reporting bomb threat.
LAHORE:
An additional district and sessions judge on Saturday granted bail to an assistant director of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) who is accused of creating a fake bomb threat at the FIA office to hinder investigator Zafar Qureshi’s inquiry in the National Insurance Company Limited scam case.
Judge Chaudhry Aurangzeb granted bail to Khawaja Hamadur Rehman on surety bonds of Rs50,000 and summoned the case for August 29.
Arguing in the court on Saturday, Rehman’s lawyers Advocate Muhammad Asif Chattha and Advocate Muhammad Naeem Malik said that the only thing their client was guilty of was doing his duty by reporting a bomb threat.
They noted that the FIA building had been bombed twice in the last few years and many people had been killed.
They said that there was a three-day gap between the bomb hoax incident and the registration of the FIR, which was often an indication that the accused had been made a scapegoat.
According to the FIR of the case, in which Rehman is accused of violating Sections 25/29-D of the Telegraph Act and Sections 182 and 186 of the Pakistan Penal Code, the assistant FIA director called up Additional Director General Zafar Qureshi on the night of August 12 and told him that information had been received of a bomb threat at the FIA zonal office in Lahore and so he should not turn up for work on August 13.
But Qureshi told the Supreme Court on August 16 that the threat had been received on August 13, while a search of the premises had found no bomb. He believed that the story had been concocted to prevent him doing his job of investigating the NICL case.
The Supreme Court, which has taken a suo motu interest in the case, ordered that an FIR be registered against the official concerned for starting and circulating a false rumour.
PML-Quaid leader Moonis Elahi and several others are accused of embezzling millions of rupees in the NICL case.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 21st, 2011.
An additional district and sessions judge on Saturday granted bail to an assistant director of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) who is accused of creating a fake bomb threat at the FIA office to hinder investigator Zafar Qureshi’s inquiry in the National Insurance Company Limited scam case.
Judge Chaudhry Aurangzeb granted bail to Khawaja Hamadur Rehman on surety bonds of Rs50,000 and summoned the case for August 29.
Arguing in the court on Saturday, Rehman’s lawyers Advocate Muhammad Asif Chattha and Advocate Muhammad Naeem Malik said that the only thing their client was guilty of was doing his duty by reporting a bomb threat.
They noted that the FIA building had been bombed twice in the last few years and many people had been killed.
They said that there was a three-day gap between the bomb hoax incident and the registration of the FIR, which was often an indication that the accused had been made a scapegoat.
According to the FIR of the case, in which Rehman is accused of violating Sections 25/29-D of the Telegraph Act and Sections 182 and 186 of the Pakistan Penal Code, the assistant FIA director called up Additional Director General Zafar Qureshi on the night of August 12 and told him that information had been received of a bomb threat at the FIA zonal office in Lahore and so he should not turn up for work on August 13.
But Qureshi told the Supreme Court on August 16 that the threat had been received on August 13, while a search of the premises had found no bomb. He believed that the story had been concocted to prevent him doing his job of investigating the NICL case.
The Supreme Court, which has taken a suo motu interest in the case, ordered that an FIR be registered against the official concerned for starting and circulating a false rumour.
PML-Quaid leader Moonis Elahi and several others are accused of embezzling millions of rupees in the NICL case.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 21st, 2011.