LHC decides to hear Butt’s appeal, bail petition

The bench headed by Chaudhry Iftikhar Hussain also fixed for next week the hearing for the appeal and bail petition.


Express September 07, 2010

LAHORE: A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Monday removed the objection of a time bar on appeal filed against the three-year sentence awarded to Sohail Zia Butt in his absence by an accountability court.

The bench headed by Chaudhry Iftikhar Hussain also fixed for next week the hearing for the appeal and bail petition.

The former MPA had been sentenced by a court on June 21, 2001 after he failed to appear in a criminal reference.

The appeal had been fixed as an ‘objection case’ before the bench after the office of the LHC objected that no appeal had been filed for nine years after the sentence.

Butt’s counsel Ehtasham Qadir cited Supreme Court judgements to argue that when a lower court verdict was a nullity in law, delay in filing of the appeal against it could be condoned.

He further argued that the NAB court could merely ask his client to furnish surety bonds. He said Butt could face trial without being sent on judicial remand.

Appearing for the NAB, advocate Mian Muhammad Bashir argued for shifting the appellant from the hospital to a jail. The court left the matter pending until it receives the doctors’ report on the state of Butt’s health.

The reference filed during the previous regime of Pervez Musharraf accused Butt of embezzling Rs2 million. He allegedly received the said amount from the National Industrial Finance Corporation (NIFC) under a deal to get Ahmad Mansion, The Mall, evacuated from illegal occupants, which he failed to honour. The reference was framed against Butt by the NAB on the complaint of the executive officer of the corporation.

Arguing for Butt, Qadir said that his client did not face any charges of corruption, which fell in the ambit of the NAB. He said it was public knowledge that Sohail Zia Butt had not been in the country since May 13, 2000. He also said that he had not received the notice for appearing before the court. “Any reports prepared by the NAB are unauthentic and aimed at victimisation,” he said.

Qadir said that the alleged agrrement wad a contract between the two parties. Its breach could not amount to corruption or embezzlement of public money. Hence the conviction as well as arrest warrants were void.

Butt’s lawyer said that his client had been in Pakistan for over two-and-a-half years now and had attended a number of public events, including his son’s election campaign but the NAB authorities had not taken any action against him. He added that the authorities had acted now with malafide intentions.

An accountability court had invoked the 2001 sentence against Butt on September 3 while he was in NAB’s custody following his arrest from near Kalma Chowk on September 1.

While giving Butt into NAB’s custody for two days on a physical remand on September 2, the court had ordered that he be admitted to a hospital for a medical check up in view of his heart disease. The next day the court pressed into service the sentence awarded to Butt in his absence.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7th, 2010.

COMMENTS (2)

ASMAT JAMAL | 13 years ago | Reply No problem. He is also from the same party
basharat | 13 years ago | Reply I do not know facts of the case, and matter is subjudice with the court,therfore, it would be unfair to make comments about merits of the case.Delay in approaching the court will definitly confront the petitioner. In my opinion, he is required to account for the delay to the satisfaction of the Court.In recent past, in a similar case, delay in filing appeal against conviction of Mian Nawaz Sharif was condoned.
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