KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Friday granted pre-arrest bail to Salman Farooqui, the principal secretary of President Asif Ali Zardari, in three corruption cases.
The bail was granted by a division bench, comprising Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, in the sum of Rs500,000 each to Mr Farooqui, who appeared before the court.
His lawyers, Iqtidar Ali Hashmi and Arshad Lodhi, said that the cases against Mr Farooqui had been withdrawn in March 2008 under Section 7 of the National Reconciliation Ordinance, 2007.
However, they said, the relief given under the NRO stood withdrawn after the ordinance was declared void by the Supreme Court on Dec 16.
The lawyers requested the court to grant the pre-arrest bail in view of Mr Farooqui’s voluntary appearance before the court to save him from undue harassment and humiliation.
They said that Mr Farooqui had undergone a lengthy medical treatment, including surgeries of brain, heart and prostate, during his long stay abroad, adding that their client was still under intensive medical care.
They said that the NAB reference (20/1997) against the petitioner and others about irregularities in textile quota had been lodged on April 12, 1997, and it was disposed of on March 17 last year.
They said that the Chief Ehtesab Commissioner had filed a reference in an accountibility court in a case involving gold import licences, but Salman Farooqui, then secretary for water and power, was not cited as an accused.
However, they said the NAB had filed a supplementary reference (23/2000) with mala fide intentions in which his name was mentioned without any specific allegation or substantive evidence.
They contended that the licence had been issued to a gold importer, ARY, by the competent authority and the petitioner had no role in that matter. The accountability court No2 of Rawalpindi had disposed of the reference on March 5 last year.
The lawyers said that their client also feared that his name might be inserted in the Exit Control List to restrain him from leaving country.
The third case in which Mr Farooqui was granted bail was registered against him by the anti-corruption establishment in 1997 on a private complaint.
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