An accountability court on Saturday extended the physical remand of Jang/Geo Media Group Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman for 10 days in the private property case.
He had appeared before the accountability court on Saturday after his earlier remand expired. During the hearing today, the special prosecutor for the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had requested the court to extend MSR’s remand by 15 days.
As MSR’s counsel, Amjad Pervez, had received the copy of the remand extension request on short notice, the court briefly adjourned the hearing to allow him to prepare. After the hearing resumed, the NAB prosecutor told the court that the accountability bureau had summoned different records concerning MSR.
“There are certain SOPs regarding procuring documents from government departments,’ he said. “As we keep getting the documents, we will keep proceeding with the investigation.”
“We have requested some more documents from LDA,” he added. To this, MSR’s counsel reminded the court that international media was following what was happening to the senior-most editor of Pakistan’s largest media group.
He firmly opposed NAB’s request to extend his client’s physical remand. “NAB is wasting the court’s time. MSR has met all NAB officers till now and the investigation is complete,” he argued.
“All his [MSR’s] records have been with the investigating officer from day one,” Pervez told the court. “At this stage, NAB does not need to extend his physical remand,” Pervez insisted. “The accountability bureau is making excuses about the lockdown to mislead the court,” the counsel argued.
After hearing arguments from both sides, the court initially reserved its judgment before granting NAB 10 more days of custody.
