LAHORE - The Lahore High Court (LHC) division bench on Thursday granted bail to three convicts after suspending their sentence in Rs 1.5 billion forex fraud case. The bench ordered them to submit surety bonds of Rs500,000 each for availing the bail.

The bench, headed by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi, passed the orders while hearing an appeal, filed by Amir Shafiq, Amir Abbas and Muhammad Azam Chishti, all directors of Aeigs Forex, against their conviction.

The defence counsel argued that an Accountability Court handed down five-year jail term to the convicts in Aeigs fraud case against the facts. He pleaded with the bench to set aside the sentence being illegal.

He also requested the bench to grant bail after suspending the conviction till the final decision of the appeal, as the convicts had already served four years jail term.

However, the prosecutor of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) submitted that the trial court awarded sentence on merit and pleaded with the court to dismiss the appeal.

The bench, after hearing the arguments, suspended the sentence and granted bail to the convicts.

NAB filed the reference against the convicts in 2005, which was decided by an accountability court in 2018. The Court awarded five years sentence to the convicts for defrauding over 125 people and causing a Rs.5 billion loss to them. The accused deprived them of their money by offering them profit on their deposits.

Fawad's petition to be taken on Oct 8

A Lahore High Court (LHC) division bench on Thursday fixed a petition, filed by senior bureaucrat Fawad Hasan Fawad against his arrest, for hearing on Oct 8.

The bench, headed by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi, passed the orders while allowing a civil miscellaneous application, filed by Fawad for early hearing of his petition. The senior bureaucrat submitted that his petition was scheduled to be heard on Sept 10, but it was not taken up for hearing. He pleaded with the bench to fix the matter as early as possible.

Fawad Hasan had challenged his arrest by National Accountability Bureau in connection with the Punjab Land Development Company/Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing scam.

He submitted that he was arrested without fulfilling legal requirements. Assailing the step of initiating illegal assets inquiry against him during the remand period, Fawad pleaded with the court to set aside the arrest and order his release.