ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court said the parameters laid down in Talat Ishaq vs National Accountability Bureau (NAB) must be considered for grant of post-arrest bail to the accused facing charge under the NAB Ordinance.
A three-judge bench headed by Justice Mushir Alam and comprising Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed, heard the appeals against the
SHC orders to allow bail petitions both pre as well as post-arrest to the accused.
The court said in Talat Ishaq vs NAB case, considerations for grant of post-arrest bail to an accused confronting charge under the NAB Ordinance have clearly been illustrated; therefore, an accused facing indictment in a NAB reference has to qualify the parameters set down in that case; there is no other way out.
Similarly, grant of pre-arrest bail in a cognisable/non-bailable offence is a remedy, most extraordinary in the nature of judicial protection, extended by diverting usual course of law for the sole purpose of protecting reputation and honour of an innocent citizen, being hounded through abuse of process of law for purposes sinister and oblique; the protection is based upon equity and cannot be extended in every run of the mill criminal case prima facie founded upon incriminatory evidence, warranting custody for investigative purposes, said the apex court’s written order.
The court said the protection was devised in Hidayat Ullah Khan’s case (PLD 1949 Lahore 1) and the principles laid down therein are being faithfully followed till date.
A Division Bench of the SHC had admitted the petitioners – Maqbool Ahmed Mahessar, Hafiz Suhail Ahmed, Muhammad Pariyal Solangi, Nasrullah and others – pre-arrest bails in different NAB references with a direction to furnish deposits equivalent to the amounts allegedly embezzled by them at the cost of public exchequer.
The apex court said such directions for release of an accused on bail have since been held by this court as ultra vires in judgments more than one.
It noted that the SHC impugned orders being inconsistent therewith cannot sustain.
It remitted for decision afresh in accord with the law declared by this Court in the case of Talat Ishaq vs National Accountability Bureau (PLD 2019 Supreme Court 12).
An accused seeking bail desires transfer of his custody from Superintendent of the Jail, where he is confined, to his surety who undertakes his production as and when required by the Court and for that he has to make out a case in accordance with the law applicable thereto; he cannot be allowed or required to barter his freedom.
The SC said that the bail petitions filed by the appellants before the High Court of Sindh shall be deemed as pending for decisions afresh; they shall remain on ad-interim bail upon furnishing bonds in the sum of Rs500,000, with one surety each in the like amount to the satisfaction of Deputy Registrar (Judicial) of Sukkur Bench before fall of 3rd week of the month; they shall appear in person before the Court on a date notified by the office.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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