Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leader Akram Khan Durrani Tuesday approached the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for seeking bail before arrest. A division bench of the IHC will take up the petition on Wednesday (today). Durrani filed the petition through his counsel Kamran Murtaza and made the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman, deputy director of the Investigation Wing-II and investigation officer as respondents.
The JUI-F leader stated that he has previously served as chief minister of KP and also has been a federal minister for housing and works. He added that the petitioner was sent a questionnaire by the NAB in an enquiry regarding appointment of Director PHA-F as chairman of committee for allotment of mosques and allotment of plots for mosques. Durrani said that he duly responded it.
He adopted that the petitioner has been playing an instrumental role in Rehbar Committee while his party (JUI-F) is holding 'Azadi March' against the incumbent government from October 27. "The increase in pace of call-up notices to the petitioner is done with malafide intention at the instance of government just to disturb the political activities," added Durrani.
He maintained, "Respondent No. 1 (NAB) since its formation in 1999 has primarily been serving as a tool of political engineering and a way of silencing dissenting voices and it was anticipated by organizers of the Azadi March that respondent Bureau will suddenly spring into action against certain individuals playing a significant role in gathering support for the march which will commence from October 27."
He adopted in his petition that he has been cooperating with the anti-graft watchdog in its probe against him. The JUI-F leader said that he was in Quetta due to political activities when he learnt that his arrest warrants have been issued by the bureau to stop him from garnering support for his party's upcoming Azadi March.
Durrani said that he was granted protective bail by the Balochistan High Court on October 10 and feared that he will likely be arrested by the bureau once his protective bail ends. Therefore, he prayed to the court to grant him bail before arrest till the final disposal of the matter.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2019
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