ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Friday arrested Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani outside the Supreme Court after the Supreme Court ordered him to surrender before NAB.
Earlier today, Supreme Court ordered Durrani to surrender before National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in assets beyond known source of income. A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial, took up a plea filed by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Durrani seeking pre-arrest bail.
Earlier, Durrani’s lawyer requested the court to grant his client bail so that he can surrender before the relevant trial court. Justice Mansoor Ali Shah said that the Sindh High Court had rejected Durrani’s bail plea on merit, so the apex court cannot conduct a hearing on this plea without the high court’s verdict.
Sajjad Ali Shah said that you must have been in the jail if SHC had rejected your bail plea. Why Mr Durrani didn’t surrender. Why should we give him a special concession,” Justice Shah asked Mr Durrani’s lawyer Justice Mansoor Ali Shah remarked that the apex court could not hear Mr Durrani’s case unless he complied with the SHC order first. He said when the SHC rejected his bail, he should be in jail.
SC rejected the plea and directed the accused to surrender to NAB. Durrani expressed hope that he will get justice from SC. Earlier, a team of NAB had raided the residence of the speaker following rejection of his bail from Sindh High Court (SHC) but failed to arrest him due to resistance from his guard. It is pertinent to mention that the NAB had approved an inquiry against Durrani over various allegations of corruption in July, 2018. It fixed Mr Durrani’s case for hearing next week.
In October the Sindh High Court has rejected the bail plea of Agha Siraj Durrani in a case pertaining to possessing assets beyond known sources income. A special bench of the Sindh High Court comprising Justice Naseem Akhtar and Justice Iqbal Kalhoro had reserved a verdict on the bail application, however, on the order of the Supreme Court, the bail application was reheard at the SHC.
According to the verdict, the court rejected bail for eight accused, including Durrani, while bail was granted to the other eight, including Durrani’s wife Naheed, daughters and sons. Agha Siraj was arrested in Islamabad in 2019 by NAB Karachi. He has been accused of accumulating assets worth Rs1.6 billion, which according to NAB are beyond his known sources of income.
The PPP leader was arrested in February last year by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in an investigation pertaining to alleged movable and immovable assets beyond his known sources of income, making 352 illegal appointments, embezzlement of public funds in the construction of the MPA Hostel and the new Sindh Assembly building, as well as the appointment of project directors for these schemes.