KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday directed the provincial Inspector General of Police (IGP) AD Khawaja and the Karachi National Accountability Bureau (NAB) director general to ensure that the former Hyderabad district account officer, Sikander Ali Abro and his family members were not harassed in any manner.
A division bench was hearing a petition of Abro seeking a restraining order for the corruption watchdog officials who were allegedly harassing him in respect to an inquiry pertaining to embezzlement.
The petitioner submitted that some of his subordinates had embezzled the government’s funds in 2011 on which the NAB had initiated an inquiry against him and others but later the SHC restrained the bureau from taking any corrective action against him.
Eventually, the trial court cleared him of all the charges in 2013 but now Karachi NAB Assistant Director, Sarvaish Shaikh and other officials were harassing him in respect to another inquiry.
Abro stated that Sarvaish Shaikh along with other officials and a person named Iqbal Channa, who was pretending to be Sukkur NAB director intelligence had intercepted him near Sea View at midnight on the 17th and 18th of November and kept him captive in illegal detention. “The above-mentioned persons had demanded Rs 10 million as ransom from me and threatened of dire consequences”, he added.
“Some people including Sarvaish Shaikh raided my house on 19th November and took me away without showing an arrest warrant. On the very next day, I was produced before the Hyderabad accountability court which granted my physical remand in another corruption case which was baseless,” the petitioner added.
Impleading NAB Chairman, Sindh NAB DG and others as the respondents, the petitioner pleaded the court to declare his arrest as illegal. The court was further requested to direct the South Karachi DIG to lodge an FIR of the incident at the concerned police station and appoint an honest officer for the investigation.
At the outset of the hearing, Darkhshan police station SP (Legal) SHO Habib Khan appeared before the court stating that they were ready to record the petitioner’s statement and do the needful in the light of the said statement.
The court directed the SHO to record the statement and submit a compliance report on the next date.
The bench also asked the IGP and Karachi NAB DG to ensure that Abro, his wife and the rest of his family members were not harassed or intimidated in any manner by the NAB officials, or else an appropriate order would be passed against the criminal officers.
Later, the hearing was adjourned till December 22.
It is pertinent to mention here that NAB Chairman Justice (R) Javed Iqbal had taken notice of the incident and suspended Sarvaish Shaikh and ordered an inquiry against him for demanding a bribe from the citizens.
“The inquiry team has already reached Karachi and initiated the inquiry,” a NAB press release read.
