The Supreme Court has granted bail to the chief executive officer (CEO) and editor-in-chief of Jang Group of Newspapers, Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman, in an illegal land grabbing case on Monday.
SCP granted him bail against a surety bond of Rs10 million.
Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman had been imprisoned in a 34-year-old case of illegal acquisition of land in the tenure of then chief minister of Punjab, Nawaz Sharif. The Jang CEO was accused of illegally having obtained said land.
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According to Dawn News, the CEO’s counsel, Amjad Pervaiz, revealed to the court that the Jang group editor-in-chief was arrested by NAB in the inquiry stage of the case.
He asserted how despite a reference being filed against four people, then chief minister Nawaz Sharif, then director land department, then director Lahore Development Authority (LDA), and the Jang CEO, an arrest was only made in Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman’s case.
The counsel added that NAB Chairman, Justice(R) Javed Iqbal had not even issued arrest warrants for the directors of the land department and LDA.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested the Jang CEO on March 12th over;
“alleged illegal exemption of 54 plots (each measuring one kanal) in H-block of Lahore’s Jauhar Town phase-II allotted to him being the holder of general power of attorney on behalf of Hidayat Ali and Hikmat Ali by the then Punjab chief minister (Nawaz Sharif in 1986) in violation of the relevant laws/rules”.
Previously the Lahore High Court (LHC) had denied Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman’s request for bail. That is why he approached the apex in the matter.
Last week, a two-member bench of SCP referred the media tycoon’s bail plea to the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Gulzar Ahmed for re-fixing of its hearing by a three-judge bench. The move came after Justice Umar Ata Bandial, who was previously heading a three-member bench, excused himself from hearing the plea moved by Rehman citing personal reasons.
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