Lahore High Court Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Shamim Khan on Monday dismissed an application of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) seeking transfer of bail petition of Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif from a bench presently seized with it.
A NAB counsel argued before the court that at present a division bench comprising Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan and Justice Mirza Viqas Rauf was holding the proceedings in the bail petition of Shahbaz Sharif in Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme case.
He pointed out that another division bench headed by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi had already decided bail petitions of co-suspects in the housing scheme scam. Therefore, he said the bail petition of former chief minister Shahbaz Sharif should also be heard by the same bench.
Meanwhile, the bench headed by Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan adjourned further hearing of the bail petitions of Shahbaz Sharif as arguments of NAB special prosecutor Akram Qureshi and defence counsel were underway.
The prosecutor argued that Shahbaz, being chief minister, unlawfully exercised powers of the Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC) Board of Directors (BoD) and entrusted the project to Lahore Development Authority (LDA) after canceling the first lawful contract of the housing scheme awarded to Latif & Sons Company.
To a bench's query, the prosecutor admitted that though there was no direct evidence against Shahbaz Sharif of misuse of authority. However, he said as per prosecution witnesses, former secretary implementation to chief minister Fawad Hassan Fawad carried out all illegal acts on the instruction of Shahbaz Sharif.
Challenging the medial grounds taken by the former chief minister for bail, the prosecutor argued that as per the judgments of the Supreme Court the bail could be allowed on medical reasons if the sickness was detrimental to life. In the present case, he said, the petitioner had no such hardship or sickness.
On the other side, defence counsel Amjad Pervez argued that Shahbaz being the chief minister had not ordered the cancellation of the housing scheme's first contract. He said it was BoD of the PLDC that approved the cancellation.
About the transfer of the project from PLDC to LDA, he said the Punjab government rules of business allowed the chief minister to transfer any subject of a department to another department. He said Shahbaz Sharif took no unlawful decision nor he misused his authority. The bench adjourned the hearing till Tuesday (today) asking the defence side to come up with more arguments.
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