KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday turned down a plea of a former provincial minister Sharjeel Inam Memon seeking urgent hearing of his post-arrest bail application in a case pertaining to Rs5.76billion corruption in the Sindh information department.
Sharjeel, through his counsel Sardar Latif Khosa, approached the court and requested it to hear his bail plea at the earliest. The counsel told the judges that the former minister had not been provided due medical facilities in jail.
A division bench, headed by Justice Iqbal Ahmed Kalhoro, turned down the urgent hearing plea, maintaining that there was no need of urgency and the same would be heard on its time.
It may be noted that the SHC had earlier dismissed pre-arrest bails please of prime accused Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) leader Sharjeel and others and subsequently they were arrested.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had filed a reference against PPP lawmaker and 17 others had caused for allegedly causing Rs5.76billion loss to the national exchequer through the embezzlement in the Sindh government’s advertisement campaign on electronic media.
According to NAB, the investigation was conducted regarding corruption and corrupt practices in the advertisement awareness campaigns on TV and FM channels between July 2013 and June 2015 and it was found that the accused acted with the connivance of each other resulting in losses to the national exchequer.
The official of a private advertising agency, Midas Advertising, Inam Akbar, besides Riaz Munir, Mohammad Hanif, Asim Amir Khan Sikandar and others were also nominated as the accused persons in the reference.