ISLAMABAD: The Accountability Court, on Wednesday, disposed of the petition of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi seeking pre-arrest bail in £190 million National Crime Agency (NCA) scam commonly known as the Al-Qadir Trust case.

Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Bashir, while hearing Bushra Bibi’s bail application, declared her petition ineffective and disposed of it, as the court was informed by the prosecution that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had not issued her arrest warrant in Al-Qadir Trust case.

Earlier, the motorcade carrying Imran Khan and his wife arrived at the Federal Judicial Complex (FJC) where the ATC is located from his Zaman Park, Lahore residence amid tight security. However, Bushra Bibi went to the courtroom alone for attending the proceedings while Khan sat in his car during his wife’s appearance before the court.

Mian Umar Nadeem deputy director and the investigation officer (IO) of the case while recording his statement before the court said that no warrant has been issued against the petitioner (Bushra Bibi) in the said case and her arrest is not required presently.

During the hearing, NAB deputy prosecutor general Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi told the court that Imran Khan had issued statements on May 13 against the NAB chairman and claimed that the anti-graft body raided his house. He claimed that the Bureau did not conduct a raid nor did they attack.

He further said that no arrest warrant was issued for Bushra Bibi. She is a suspect and should cooperate with the bureau, he said.

Khawaja Haris, Bushra Bibi’s counsel told the court that the NAB did not send even a single notice for joining the investigation and converted the inquiry into an investigation. When Bushra Bibi went along with Khan during his appearance before the NAB investigation team in the same case, the bureau official told her that we have not summoned you, he said, adding that Bushra Bibi kept waiting for six hours in her car outside the NAB office.

The court after hearing the arguments of the defence counsel and the prosecution disposed of the petition of Bushra Bibi.

A heavy contingent of police and Frontier Constabulary (FC) was deployed in and outside of the FJC as well as on the route leading to the FJC to avert any untoward incident.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023