The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday reserved its verdict in a bail plea of anchorperson Dr Shahid Masood in Pakistan Television (PTV) corruption case. A single bench of IHC comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani heard Dr Shahid petition moved through advocate Shah Khawar and reserved the judgment after hearing the arguments of both the sides.
During the court proceedings, Masood's counsel Shah Khawar contended that his client had not been nominated in the first FIR lodged in this case. Justice Kayani asked from the PTV's counsel regarding the position of co-accused in the case. The court was informed that Dr Shahid Masood is under arrest while the other suspects are on bail and returning the money. The counsel added that suspect Kashif Rabbani has returned Rs 10.3 million while suspect Roshan Mustafa Gilani has returned Rs0.8 million.
The bench then inquired whether the co-accused were given bail on merit or after returning money to which the counsel said they were not granted bail on merit. An official of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) told the court that investigation in the PTV corruption case has been completed but a challan has not been submitted yet. The FIA official further informed that no evidence had been found regarding Dr Shahid Masood taking money and there was no witness statement in this regard.
After hearing the arguments, the court reserved its decision about the anchorperson's bail plea. FIA had arrested Masood from the premises of the IHC on November 23 after his pre-arrest bail plea was rejected in the PTV corruption case. The anchorperson was later sent to Adiala jail on judicial remand. He was an accused in the case related to alleged embezzlement in Pakistan Television (PTV) during his stint as the state-run PTV's managing director and chairman.
The petitioner is allegedly involved in embezzlement of Rs37 million while acquiring the Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) media rights in 2008 for which an agreement was signed with a fake company, namely M/S ISS. The investigators in the case claimed that the amount had been released and it caused a loss of millions of dollars to PTV as the state-run television had failed to acquire the PCB's media rights from 2008 to 2013. According to the prosecution, Dr Shahid had allegedly signed an agreement with a fake company to negotiate with the PCB for grant of rights to PTV for coverage of matches played in Pakistan. It said that because of the agreement PTV had to face heavy financial losses.