Lawyer
Targeted For Supporting Judiciary High Court Grants Bail, Reprimands NAB
ISLAMABAD: “Nadeem Ahmed Advocate” One of the
top lawyers of the country Nadeem Ahmad Advocate said on Monday that Nadeem
Ahmed had been receiving threats from the government and various unknown people
for the past many days.
Nadeem Ahmed Advocate said that on Friday after midnight, dozens of armed NAB officials surrounded his house and kidnapped him without showing him any warrants while harassing his whole family. Later, Nadeem Ahmed Advocate was revealed that the NAB chairman had himself filed a reference before the NAB court in which Nadeem Ahmed’s name was deliberatelyand wrongly included. Nadeem Ahmed Advocate said ‘before’ Fasih Bokhari filed the reference against him, no official of NAB had even contacted him or sent him any notice or even bothered to take his statement regarding the allegations.
Even after his
arrest, the NAB did not conduct any investigation. The NAB people, directly
reporting to Islamabad on Friday night, did not bother to take any written
statement from him. And what is surprising is that on that very night, the NAB
officials told Nadeem that they would not be seeking his further
custody/remand.
The question, he
says, is that if the reference was genuine, and if his arrest was so needed to
conduct an investigation, why no investigation was done and why NAB told the
NAB court next morning that it no longer needed his custody/remand.
Most surprisingly,
Nadeem Ahmed said, the moment he was taken to the NAB centre after midnight, a
representative of a particular channel was present inside the NAB office. He
was locked up in a room, where the channel representative kept on making video
and started showing it on its channel with an angle to defame and humiliate
him.
This, Nadeem Ahmed
learnt, was the sole object of his arrest i.e. to humiliate and intimidate him
to discourage him and people like him who stand with the independent judiciary
and who keep on exposing all conspiracies aimed at damaging the judiciary.
Earlier today, a
division bench of the Sindh High Court, comprising acting Chief Justice Maqbool
Baqar and Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, granted bail to Nadeem Ahmed Advocate in
the NAB reference, filed by NAB authorities against him.
Nadeem Ahmed,
advocate, was represented in the High Court by Sindh High Court Bar
Association’s President Anwar Mansoor; Siddiq Mirza, Advocate Supreme Court; Dr
Amjad Bokhari, Advocate Supreme Court; Shahab Sarki, General Secretary High
Court Bar Association, and other prominent lawyers.
Advocate Anwar
Mansoor argued before the court that all the offences alleged to have been
committed by the management of the Callmate Telips ‘were committed prior to’
the induction of Nadeem Ahmed, advocate, as a non-Executive Director on the
Board of Callmate Telips. Anwar Mansoor further argued that Nadeem Ahmed did
not draw any salary or other benefits from the company in question.
Siddiq Mirza added
that even the NAB’s own reference did not contain any allegation, whatsoever, against
Nadeem and there was no evidence or document provided by the NAB authorities
that linked Nadeem to the alleged offences. See more reports about Nadeem Ahmed Advocate
Siddiq Mirza also pointed out to the court that Nadeem Ahmed was part of the Board that actually unearthed the scams/frauds committed by the previous management in the year 2007 and passed board resolution to take legal action against the culprits.
After hearing the
arguments, the court reprimanded the NAB prosecutor, and the investigation
officer for failing to satisfy the court with regard to involvement of Nadeem
Ahmed Advocate in the alleged offences after having been given sufficient
opportunity by the Honorable Court.
After the
petitioner’s arguments, despite repeated insistence of the court, the NAB
prosecutor failed to show from the reference any specific allegation against
Nadeem Ahmed, any of his wrongdoings or that any wrongdoing was done when he
was director or any document to show his involvement.
The court
commented that arresting a respected lawyer without any evidence might put the
investigation officer and relevant officials of the NAB in trouble. The court
further commented that life and reputation of citizens is not child’s play.
Though the court has granted the bail application, it has not yet passed a detailed
order which is expected today.
APP adds: The
National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had arrested Nadeem Ahmad Advocate on the
non-bailable warrants of arrest issued by the Accountability Court, Karachi.
The accused side
is misleading the media that he was arrested without any arrest warrants, said
a press release issued by NAB here Monday. NAB arrested the accused from his
home when he was trying to escape the scene. NAB is an independent organisation
and takes action against every corrupt person without any influence and under
the provisions of its law.
In this case, the
accused, Nadeem Ahmed Advocate, ex-director Callmate Telips Telecom Limited
(CTTL), is involved in corruption of Rs5 billion by cheating public at large.
Nadeem Ahmed was one of the seven accused persons in this case.
On April 30, a
reference was signed by the NAB chairman against seven accused persons,
including Nadeem Ahmad. Arrest warrants were initially issued against six
accused persons, including Nadeem Ahmed, on May 29 by the Accountability Court
No IV. Arrest warrants against five accused persons were repeated on June 14 as
one of the accused, Hasan Jamil Ansari, was arrested by NAB. So, pinning this
arrest with judiciary is wrong, NAB press release said.
The accused
advocate’s role in the restoration of judiciary may be worth mention but good
work done on any issue does not give anyone a certificate to play havoc with
other matters, it added.
