The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday granted protective bail to Tauqeer Shah former principal secretary to chief minister Punjab, and staff officer Talha Burki until August 30. Both were accused of involvement in the former LHC chief justice Khawaja Sharif’s alleged murder conspiracy.
Justice Ali Baqar Najfi passed the orders on a bail application filed by the accused.
The court directed the accused to pay Rs 50,000 surety bonds to avail the bail and ordered them to appear before the respective court.
Earlier, the petitioner’s counsel Khawaja Harris submitted before the court that the accused had no connection with the conspiracy but the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had registered a bogus case against them. The counsel pleaded to the court to grant protective bail to the accused.
The accused were alleged to have produced a fabricated intelligence report in an attempt to create differences between the federal government, provincial government and the judiciary.
The court directed to place on record the report of the judicial commission constituted to probe the matter along with the FIR.
Physical remand of accused blind cancelled
The Lahore High Court on Friday cancelled the physical remand of a blind accused for involvement in a robbery case, declaring it illegal. The court also confirmed ad-interim bail earlier granted to the accused, subject to furnishing of surety bond of Rs 20,000.
Justice Ali Baqar Najfi passed the orders on a habeas corpus petition filed by Nazir Ahmad for the recovery of his relative Hafiz Muhammad Naeem.
Judicial Magistrate Mehr Muhammad Zafar Iqbal Sial appeared before the court on being summoned and said that before granting remand, he had a fair look of the accused. Since the accused could see the remand was granted, he added.
However, the court observed that remand orders were illegal as the accused was blind since birth.
The court cancelled the remand orders and confirmed ad-interim bail earlier granted to the accused Hafiz Muhammad Naeem. The court criticized police performance and observed that the case exposed the flaws in the system which ought to be duly investigated.
The court also ordered to forward of the copy of the order to DIG Investigation for information.
Earlier, the court had summoned the judicial magistrate after it discovered that the accused was blind but remanded in a robbery case. The Liaqatabad police produced the accused on the court’s directions in a habeas corpus case.
The petitioner, in his petition, submitted that Liaqatabad police took his relative Hafiz Muhammad Naeem from his house besides snatching valuables.
He pleaded the court to recover the detention of his relative from illegal custody of the police.
