Ex-OGRA chief: Court grants bail to Taqueer Sadiq

IHC accepts the bail plea against two bonds of Rs1m each.

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday granted bail to a former chairman of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra), Taqueer Sadiq, the principal accused in a multibillion-rupee scam.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Riaz Ahmed Khan and Justice Noorul Haq Qureshi accepted the bail plea of Sadiq against the submission of two surety bonds worth Rs1 million each.

Sadiq is the main accused in the Rs82 billion scam case and is on judicial remand for the past one year. The petitioner had filed an application requesting the court to grant him bail.

The petitioner’s counsel Advocate Sardar Asmatullah has maintained that his client is behind bars since July 2013 and NAB has yet to produce any substantial proof against him.

It should be noted that the main trial is pending in the accountability court, which has submitted a reference against Sadiq along with the two former premiers — Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervez Ashraf.

On November 25, 2012, the apex court had struck down Sadiq’s appointment as Ogra chairman, after which he fled the country and was brought back by NAB officials on July 9, 2013. He was then kept at the bureau’s headquarters and produced for the first time in court in July.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 13^th, 2014.