Many years ago, there was an iconic radio show called ‘The Shadow’ in which the title character would be introduced with the tagline, “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of.
Former prime minister Abbasi and former chairman of the Sui Southern Gas Company Ismail were arrested by NAB on July 18, 2019, and August 7, 2019, respectively. Reuters/File
ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday approached the Supreme Court with appeals against bail granted to three PML-N leaders facing corruption references, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Ahsan Iqbal and Miftah Ismail.
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) had granted post-arrest bail to Mr Ismail on Dec 23, 2019, and to Mr Abbasi and Mr Iqbal on Feb 25, 2020.
Former prime minister Abbasi and former chairman of the Sui Southern Gas Company Ismail were arrested by NAB on July 18, 2019, and August 7, 2019, respectively, on the allegations of irregularities in the LNG terminal and branch pipelines project that allegedly culminated in causing huge loss to national exchequer on the complaint of Sheikh Rashid Ahmed. Later NAB received a number of complaints from other sources.
The Supreme Court has reiterated that pre-arrest bail in a cognisable or non-bailable offence is an extraordinary remedy, extended for the sole purpose of protecting reputation and honour of an innocent citizen. Dawn/File
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has reiterated that pre-arrest bail in a cognisable or non-bailable offence is an extraordinary remedy, extended for the sole purpose of protecting reputation and honour of an innocent citizen being hounded through abuse of process of law for sinister purposes.
This judicial protection is based on equity and cannot be extended in every run-of-the-mill criminal case founded upon incriminatory evidence, warranting custody for investigative purposes, observed Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed in a judgement he wrote.