Muhammad Ibrahim Soomro, the counsel for Mumtaz Soomro, who is a game officer of the wildlife department, moved the application before the district and sessions judge South, Ahmed Saba. The judge is also the in-charge special judge of anti-corruption.
The police, under supervision of a judicial magistrate, had raided a flat near Punjab Colony on a tip-off on some people who were hunting and smuggling falcons to the United Arab Emirates with help from the wildlife department’s staff.
During the raid, the police arrested Jalat Khan, Allah Nawaz, Muhammad Mushtaq, Ali Muhammad, Saifur Rehman, Ameer Khan, Umer Draz and Altaf Hussain.
Law enforcers also seized 33 falcons from their possession. Two of the rare animals have already died in the custody of the Customs department. A case has been filed against the apprehended men under section 161/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code, read with Section 5 (2) Act-II of 1947 as well as Sections seven, 13 and 17 of the Sindh Wildlife Protection Ordinance 1972.
The counsel said Soomro had been falsely implicated in the case, saying that there was no evidence linking him to the men apprehended during the raid. “The applicant was not present in Karachi on the day of alleged incident,” he said. “He was serving in Thatta at the time.” The counsel feared that Soomro would be humiliated by anti-corruption officials if he was not given interim bail.
The bail was set at Rs50,000 and the deputy district public prosecutor was issued a notice to confirm the bail or cancel it on December 24. The judge also directed Soomro to cooperate with the investigation agency so that the case could be dealt with smoothly.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 14th, 2012.
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