Hajj scam: Hamid Saeed Kazmi released on bail
Earlier, the trial court - hearing the Hajj corruption case of 2010 - had granted him bail against surety bonds and ordered his immediate release, Express News reported.
Special Judge Muhammad Ahmad Farooqui had directed him to submit two surety bonds of Rs100,000 each.
The former minister had been incarcerated in Adiala Jail for one year and five months.
The two other accused in the scam, former additional secretary to ministry of religious affairs Raja Aftabul Islam and former director-general Hajj Rao Shakeel were also present during the hearing.
Shakeel filed an application, requesting the court to unfreeze his salary account.
The court reserved its judgement on his application which will be announced during the next hearing on August 30, 2012.
Kazmi, Shakeel and Islam were accused of indulging in widespread corruption during the course of renting residential buildings for Pakistani pilgrims in Saudi Arabia and inflicting a loss of a billion rupees to the national exchequer. Most of the buildings rented by the Hajj administrators were five kilometres away from the Haram Sharif, while according to law the accommodation for Hajjis should not be more than two kilometres away.
All three of them, if summoned, will have to appear in the hearings of the case in future.
COMMENTS (30)
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Judiciary has beocme a politicain party.not doing its real job. very sad
well he really needs 2 b out as hajj is coming again .and he z an expertie in hajj corruption..gov last tenure he needs 2 make sum money 4 d gov.
A terrorist CJ could not jail a single extremist but confined Mr. Kazmi for 11 months without a bit of evidence. Now he fiddled with a spiritual guy..... Just see what happened with him next. Aagey Agey dekhiyey hota hey kya!!!!
@Khalq e Khuda: so this means the PM's holy calf's get right to corrupt the right to pilgrimage in the holy land of Makkah ?? typical Jiyala mentality- Sad!
hamid saeed kazmi is innocent, 5 times FIA proven him innocent even central executive committee which was composed by opposition member was investigating the scam given their statement in supreme court that hamid saeed kazmi is innocent and he is not involved in corruption of even one rupee. Rao shakeel, abdul qadir gillani, yousaf raza gillani looted the pilgrim and did the whole scam and all mess came on the shoulders of hamid saeed kazmi.where is azam sawati who took quran in his hands, court should punish him and give him exemplary punishment of accusing innocent with out any evidence
@ishaq ahmad: my e.mail id is nasrullah71522@hotmail.com, kindly contact me
he thing which I know is confirmed is that, Kazmi Sahib isn’t corrupt, nor his family. he is a great Molvi Sahib, who speak openly about rising extremism in Pakistan
Now time to enjoy your billions which you made by cheating Hajis!
What about Gilani’s son?
Now, Kazmi is released, Molvi attacked Veena Malik for Photo shoot and found justifications for 11 years old Christian baby (Rimsha) for burning Quranic scriptures. But Kazmi stole money and put thousands of pilgrims through absolute horror during the holiest of journeys; why aren’t they protesting?
finally justice. all the enemies of Mr. Kazmi, who had propagated against him on media and internet, and are still doing so, i would like to congratulate them first for allowing Mr. Kazmi's followers to show their support and immense love throughout this period. those who actually know this saint never needed any kind of assurance of his innocence. the person who built a house in EIGHT YEARS, who sold his car to pay for his daughter's wedding preps, who never took his family for hajj without paying for their expenses (despite what media personnel said) who gives way more to his devotees than he takes from them, how can any sane person, who knows him, can stand such injustice against him.. how did i know Mr Kazmi? i was spiritually astray, and once i prayed and cried to Allah for guidance, after a few days i dreamt that the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) appears in front of me and says 'ishaq, if you want guidance, go and take it from this person' it was then that i saw Mr Kazmi in my dream for the first time.
@Rafiq: Old people says man who is blind from one eye is very dangerous and not trust worthy.
This is the most outrageous comment to appear on the ET pages. Branding a disabled person as dangerous. Even through for one specific person sitting at the top of the judiciary that might be true, but its generalization is sickening.
So you can abuse your office, debase your religion, scam the taxpayers and otherwise be a "low life" and get bail for something around $2,100 - no offense but your guys have a different std of justice than the rest of the world.
@Khalq e Khuda: So u are saying to punish the corrupt politicians we need the men in uniform??
The courts was unable to prove anything against him and now they release him one bail. I agree with Tufan Agha that How would the court justify his period in jail. Should he not do contempt of the courts?
Moreover what about Rao Shakeel the key person of this case and Abdul Qadir Gillani newly elected MNA who grasp all the money and moving freely.
Iftikhar Chaudhry, other SC judges on SC bench, all other judges who heard his case, Media, Opposition and all others who castigated must apologise to Kazmi. Everybody criticised the poor guy without any evidence.
This man has been kept in jail for one and a half year. Now the court will release him on grounds of no proof. So the question is how would the court justify his period in jail. Should he not do contempt of the courts?
Fifty Shades of... Mehndi.
The courts live up to their reputation of being unable to dispense quick, even handed justice.
@Adeel:
You have hung a prime minister, killed another one, jailed and exiled the third and sentenced the fourth truly elected prime minister. Clearly the problem is not with the politicians but those who have been always in the power wearing uniforms, black robes and safari suits though they have swithed to regular suits now.
Alhamdulillah truth wins. Hamid Saeed Kazmi was innocent and is innocent. Very happy to listen his release news.
the prayers of Mr Abidi answered
How long before he flees to Dubai, S. Arabia, London, etc ?
What!!! Just as expected. Does any politician ever get punished for any wrong-doing in Pakistan? Another scam bites the dust.
The courts seem to have a soft spot for people with beards. But I guess this guy has learnt his lesson after staying in jail for more than a year. Hopefully he'll come out a better man.
Never TRUST a pakistani mullah