Supreme Court rejects Sharjeel Memon’s bail plea

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition of former information minister Sharjeel Memon through which he sought pre-arrest bail in a case pertaining to the corruption of Rs5.76 billion in the Sindh information department.

Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, who headed a three-judge bench of the apex court, dismissed the petition for being infructuous. He asked the counsel to approach the high court concerned for the purpose.

He observed that since the applicant has been arrested, his application seeking bail before arrest has been rendered ineffective.

When Barrister Sardar Latif Khosa, who represented the PPP leader, insisted that his client had come to the court to seek bail, a member of the bench humorously remarked whether he asked for bail of English or Urdu. In urdu, bail is a term used to refer to cattle.

Memon’s lawyer accused the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) of being biased, saying the accused belonging to Sindh province were sent behind bars, whereas those belonging to Islamabad were roaming around freely. He added that influential persons’ names were also not being placed on no-fly list.

On October 23, Memon was taken into custody along with other suspects from outside the SHC main building after the court revoked their interim bail in a case pertaining to the corruption of Rs5.76 billion in the provincial information department.

Memon is also facing another case which pertained to his alleged role in getting the state land allotted and adjusted in 43 Dehs at throwaway price for a property developer, depriving the public exchequer of billions of rupees in revenue.

Sharjeel Memon, who had returned to Pakistan in March this year after his two-year-long self-imposed exile, is facing several charges of misappropriation and corruption.

A reference filed against him related to the alleged award of government advertisements at exorbitant rates, causing loss of more than Rs five billion to the national exchequer.