For freedom’s sake: Where the high and mighty submit their surety

KARACHI:

The Nazir Branch of the Sindh High Court has an enviable history. For many a corrupt politician, bureaucrat and government servant, accused of robbing public money, has submitted their surety at this very branch to get bail.

The branch is located on the ground floor of the high court’s historic building in Karachi. The building itself is a colonial structure, built with the rare pink stone found in the Indian state of Jodhpur.

“All the important personalities, including politicians, ministers and government officers and business tycoons remember this branch,” reminisces a clerk, Syed Safdar. “During the past decades, they have personally walked in to pledge their sureties, be it in the form of cash or documents,” says the man clad in a crisp traditional cotton shalwar-kameez and waist-coast.

Since his posting in the branch in 2007, the clerk has received cash from all these personalities - mostly those who are accused of plundering the national coffers - whenever the trials begin in subordinate courts.

What is a surety?

Surety is something valuable that one deposits with the high court’s Nazir as an assurance to the court that he/she would not escape when granted bail till the final outcome of the trial. The surety must be equivalent to the value of the damages caused to the other party. There are two types of sureties: moveable and immovable. The value in each case differs.

The Nazir Branch at the provincial high court’s principal seat has received around 62,419 sureties, according to the official record available since the 1970s.

“The litigants deposit moveable sureties that include cash amount as well as saving certificates, while the immovable variety includes the ownership rights documents of agricultural lands, residential or commercial properties, bank guarantees and vehicles,” says Safdar.



Is it bad investment?

The courts’ mandate makes it clear that there must be no violation of citizens’ fundamental rights. So what is done with these valuables that the litigating parties keep with the court as surety, particularly the cash that can otherwise earn them a handsome annual profit? “Mostly, litigants deposit sureties in the form of defence saving certificates. When these certificates are deposited with the court, it does not mean that the same have been blocked or cancelled,” says a deputy Nazir, who did not wish to be named. “The litigants’ investment remains intact and the profits keep accumulating in their name. When, the litigation ends, the court releases the sureties to the concerned parties,” the official told The Express Tribune.

The Nazir Branch does not have a record of how many sureties received during the past decades have been released, but they put the figure of those still lying with the court at one-fourth.

Why security is necessary

Over the years, the branch has received huge sureties in cases involving high-profile officials such as former president Pervez Musharraf, the  former prime minister’s son, Ali Moosa Gillani, real estate business tycoon Malik Riaz’s son, Ali Riaz Malik and the ill-fated Baldia garment factory’s owners, among others. Musharraf was granted transitory bail in three cases relating to the November 2007 emergency, former premier Benazir Bhutto’s and Baloch nationalist leader Akbar Bugti’s murder trials against a surety of Rs0.1 million each.

However, the most money comes from the huge scams such as those relating to the EOBI investments, the NATO containers’ missing case and others. And of course, the admiralty and taxation cases in which the parties have to deposit an amount equal to the value of their consignments seized by the port and revenue authorities.

Fake sureties

In the past, there were some instances where those applying for bail attempted to cheat by submitting fake sureties, which means the documents of the immovable properties were not genuine.

“Such examples are rare, however,” says the clerk, adding that the computerised official records launched last year had made it nearly impossible to submit a fake surety.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23^rd, 2015.