Release of Shahbaz, Fawad Hassan on bail: SC adjourns hearing of NAB appeals against LHC order

The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned the hearing of appeals of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against the Lahore High Court order that released former Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif and Fawad Hassan Fawad on bail.
At the outset of the proceedings, Special Prosecutor General NAB Imranul Haq informed a three-judge bench, headed by Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, that Additional Prosecutor General (APG) Jehanzeb Bharwana is representing the anti-graft body in this case but as he is unwell, therefore adjourn the hearing for one week. Accepting the request, Justice Azmat deferred the case until next Tuesday.
Syed Ali Raza Advocate, representing Bilal Kidwai, another accused in Ashiana Iqbal Housing reference, apprised the bench that the NAB APG Bharwana was the legal advisor in Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC); therefore, he could not argue the case. There is the conflict of interest, he added.
Last month the NAB had filed the appeal under Article 185 of Constitution against the Lahore High Court (LHC) order dated 14-02-2019 in Ashiana Iqbal and Ramzan Sugar Mills in the apex court.
It prayed that LHC order be set aside and the post-arrest bails allowed to Shahbaz Sharif in Ashiana Iqbal Housing Scheme and Ramzan Sugar Mills cases, and Fawad Hassan Fawad, the then Secretary (Implementation) to CM Punjab, in Ashiana Housing.
It submitted that LHC Division Bench while granting bail to the Shahbaz Sharif and Fawad Hassan Fawad erred by deeply appreciating the entire prosecution evidence, which was not warranted by law, therefore the same is liable to be set aside.
The Division Bench erred to appreciate that the provision under Section 9(a) read with Section 14(c) of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, entails that an objective appreciation of the prosecution evidence had to be evaluated and the prosecution succeeded in establishing culpability upon Shahbaz Sharif and the extraordinary circumstances did not exist for granting bail to the ex-CM.
It contended that Shahbaz Sharif entrusted the project to LDA in order to award the contract of Ashiana Iqbal project to M/s Paragon Housing City (Pvt) Limited with active connivance of his close aid accused Ahad Cheema, the then DG LDA.
The NAB contended that Shahbaz Sharif time and again usurped the powers of PLDC Board to ensure that the project is undertaking as per his desires and contract is awarded to his favourite bidder. In December 2013 PLDC had initiated the bidding process for infrastructure development of Ashiana Iqbal.
It said that on 24-03-2014 the ex-CM Punjab visited the site and arbitrarily and without assigning any reason directed that the project be undertaken under Private-Public Partnership (PPP) mode. He passed orders to render benefit of 2000 kanals of state land to M/s Paragon City (Pvt) Limited as the project land was situated adjacent to the said housing society. He with co-accused Ahad Khan Cheema transferred the project from PLDC to LDA.
The NAB claimed that Fawad received illegal pecuniary benefit of Rs 55 million from accused Kamran Kayani, owner of M/s Conpro Service (Pvt) Ltd. The Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC) had awarded the contract to the lowest bidder i.e. Chaudhry A Latif and Sons.