Sindh High Court (SHC) Wednesday restrained National Accountability Bureau (NAB) from arresting Mumtazul Haq, a former additional director (land) of Karachi Development Authority (KDA), while granting him a pre-arrest bail.
The NAB is investigating charges of embezzlement of 17 plots of the city allotted illegally during Mumtazul Haq’s tenure in 1997.
Mumtazul Haq Wednesday approached the court seeking bail before arrest as according to him he has nothing to do with any corruption or embezzlement.
He moved the court through his counsel and filed a bail plea against his possible arrest by NAB as the Bureau is inquiring against him.
The petitioner submitted that he joined KDA as stenographer in 1958 and retired as additional director land in 1999. He submitted that during his long career he was neither punished in any kind of inquiry nor he was involved in corruption and misappropriation of plots.
Mumtazul Haq submitted that on September 17, 2015, the NAB issued a notice summoning him and other officials in alleged misappropriation of 17 plots in 1997. He stated that he has been harassed by the NAB’s notice but actually he was never involved in corruption.
Citing NAB’s Director General Sindh, its director coordination and secretary interior ministry as respondents, the petitioner prayed to the court to restrain NAB from arresting him.
The court was further requested to restrain the respondents and their agents from harassing the petitioner.
The SHC bench approved his bail before arrest against the surety bonds of Rs 500,000 and issued notices to the NAB and others respondents to come up on the next hearing.
It is pertinent to mention here that Mumtazul Haq is not the only bureaucrat of Sindh who got protective bail from SHC.
Earlier, Chief Secretary Sindh, Mohammad Siddique Memon, former MD KWSB Hashim Raza Zaidi and chairman of Chief Minister’s Inspection Team (CMIT) Abdus Subhan Memon also reached the court to get bail as they were under inquiry of the NAB in different corruption cases.