Court grants bail to ex-bank manager

KARACHI: A division bench of the Sindh High Court, comprising Justice Amir Hani Muslim and Justice Syed Zakir Hussain, granted bail of Rs1 million to a former bank manager in a corruption case of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) as he was suffering from a psychiatric ailment.

Former manager of Habib Bank Limited, Garden branch, Fawad Ahmad Batra, 52, was arrested in a NAB reference for alleged corrupt practices. He tried to commit suicide in jail and requested to be released on bail. Psychiatrist Prof. Dr Haroon Ahmad submitted a report, proving that Batra suffered from bipolar disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder with suicidal ideation. He said that keeping him in custody could prove dangerous.

Murder case The Sindh High Court issued a notice on Monday to the Sindh prosecutor general and defendants acquitted in a murder case. A division bench, comprising Justices Amir Hani Muslim and Syed Zakir Hussain converted the application into a criminal acquittal appeal filed by the father of the deceased, Bashir Ahmad. Ahmad said that his son, Tariq Hussain, was going from Larkana to Shikarpur when armed men shot him dead during a robbery on March 20, 2006.

He lodged an FIR at Dakhan police station and the police arrested accused Akbar, Habibullah, Gulzar and Nawazoo while Abdul Rasheed Rind, Abdul Hameed and Eisoo escaped. Rind was a notorious dacoit with head money of Rs100,000.