Missing containers scam: SHC confirms bail of 100 clearing agents

Lawyers allege that NAB is saving the big fish by harassing the agents.

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday confirmed pre-arrest bails granted to at least 100 Customs forwarding and clearing agents facing interrogation before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the 19,000 missing containers scam.

Justice Ghulam Sarwar Korai, who headed the anti-NAB appellate bench, passed the decision.

The accountability bureau had initiated the investigation in compliance with the Supreme Court of Pakistan’s order in the case of missing containers carrying the logistics for North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s and International Security Assistance Forces’ troops fighting against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Dozens of petitions were lying in the SHC by the private Customs clearance and forwarding agents companies, whose owners feared arrests by NAB. The petitioners had alleged that the accountability bureau is unnecessarily harassing them despite the fact that they had no role in the scam.

According to the lawyers, the forwarding and clearing agents were responsible for getting the consignments cleared and handed them over to the Afghan authorities at the Chaman border. The agents performed this job without leaving any deficiency, they added.

The lawyers accusing NAB authorities said that agents are being harassed so that the bigger fish are saved who are actually involved in the scam. The petitioners pleaded the court grant them bail before the arrest as there was a possibility that their arrests would be made by NAB authorities.

The bench had granted pre-arrest bail to the agents as NAB prosecutors did not oppose the decision.

On Thursday, the two-judges took up all the bail pleas that were clubbed together for hearing on the same day. With the consent of the parties, the bench confirmed the bail before the arrest to the petitioners.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2013.