LHC seeks ‘brief’ report on reference against Sohail Butt

NAB presents record of reference against former PML- N MPA Sohail Zia Butt in his bail petition.

LAHORE: A division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday directed the counsel for the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to submit a brief report after NAB submitted a voluminous record of reference against Sohail Zia Butt.

The bench directed Advocate Mian Muhammad Bashir to submit his report before the court in the next hearing on September 30.

The NAB on Thursday presented the record of reference against former PML- N MPA Sohail Zia Butt in his bail petition. It appealed against his three years conviction in the reference in 2001 by an Accountability Court of Lahore.

In the last hearing, NAB’s counsel Mian Bashir said that the record could not be found. Advocate Ehtasham Qadir, counsel for Butt, submitted that the NAB had produced a ‘bogus and fabricated’ reference against his client to victimise him on orders of the then military regime. He had said that was the reason the NAB was reluctant to show the record to the court, and was making excuses. On September 3, two days after Butt was taken into custody by NAB, the Accountability Court summoned the conviction against him under the arrest warrant issued on January 12, 2001.

The reference was filed by NAB during the regime of Pervez Musharraf accusing Butt of ‘misusing’ Rs2 million, which he had allegedly received from the National Industrial Finance Corporation (NIFC).

Advocate Qadir said that his client had faced no charges of corruption under the NAB law. He said that Butt was not in the country since May 13, 2000.The reports prepared by the NAB against Butt in that course were therefore unauthentic and aimed at victimising him, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 24^th, 2010.