KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) turned down on Thursday the bail applications of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) former President Ali Raza and other officials in Rs18.5billion graft case.
A division bench, headed by the Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M Shaikh, was hearing the post-arrest bail pleas moved by the accused.
Earlier on September 22, the SHC had revoked the interim pre-arrest bails granted to Raza, Zubair Ahmed, Imran Butt and Muhammad Waseem.
The counsel for NBP ex-president submitted to the court that his client was not involved in corruption, as he remained the chief of NBP for a very brief period. The counsel informed the judges that Raza was going through mental stress, adding that he would get heart disease, if not released.
While denying all the charges, the counsel of other accused persons also requested the court to release them on bail.On the other hand, the NAB prosecutor opposed the pleas and submitted that there was sufficient evidence against the accused.
According to the NAB, the accused persons, in connivance with each other, had caused a loss of billions of rupees to the national exchequer through their corrupt practices in the NBP Bangladesh operations.
NAB prosecutor maintained that the irregularities were revealed in the audit report of 2009, and State Bank of Pakistan former governor had also complained regarding the malpractices committed by NBP officials.
Besides the Pakistanis, some Bangladeshi citizens were also involved in the corruption, but they are still to be arrested, the NAB prosecutor revealed.
After hearing the arguments from both sides, the bench declined the bail applications. Earlier, NAB court had dismissed their pre-arrest bail pleas, and subsequently, they were arrested by the NAB.
