ISLAMABAD - Pakistan People Party (PPP) leader Syed Khurshid Shah Friday withdrew his bail application from the Supreme Court to press hardship and delay grounds before the Sindh High Court (SHC).
A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Mushir Alam conducted hearing of the post-arrest bail petition of the PPP leader and interim bail of his son. The bench remanded the case to the SHC for decision within one month.
NAB had arrested Khurshid Shah on September 18, 2019 from Islamabad. He is accused of transferring an amenity plot in the Sukkur Cooperative Society under his name to build a bungalow, besides owning hotels, filling stations and bungalows registered under the names of his front men and benami companies. NAB had filed the reference against 18 persons, including Shah, his wives, daughters, sons, and close aides, for the alleged misappropriation of Rs1.23 billion.
Shah’s counsel Makhdoom Ali Khan had sought time to withdraw the bail plea from the Supreme Court on June 03.
The PPP leader would now approach the Sindh High Court for bail on hardship and the delay grounds.
During the hearing, the Court admonished NAB for not completing the investigation.
Justice Tariq noted that the investigation is still continuing so that supplementary reference could be filed against the PPP leader. He said that the NAB should know the fate of supplementary reference.
The NAB special prosecutor informed that the investigation has been completed and soon the supplementary reference will be filed. Justice Tariq remarked that filing supplementary reference means again charge the accused. He added that if the charges are framed again then trial would start afresh.
The judge further said that framing of more charges after two years means that bail is confirmed. It seems that the NAB has been doing all this with connivance, he said and observed that the purpose of all these measures is to benefit the accused.
About the interim bail of Shah’s son, an associate of Farooq H Naek, who is representing Khurshid Shah’s son Farrukh Shah, informed that Naek could not appear because of food poisoning. He asked the court to fix Farrukh’s case with other accused.
The court deferred the case till June 7 and told Farrukh to arrange another lawyer in case Naek does not appear on next date.
