Two-member bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) headed by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi on Thursday granted an interim bail to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Punjab President Rana Sanaullah Khan in the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) recent inquiry initiated against him in the assets beyond means case.
Rana Sanaullah’s counsels Khawaja Amjad Pervaiz Advocate and Azam Nazir Tarar Advocate appeared before the LHC.
According to NAB, the former Punjab law minister acquired his assets from corruption and corrupt practices. Sanaullah, in his petition, questioned: “how the same matter of acquiring assets could be investigated by two departments?” During the proceedings on Thursday, Rana Sanaullah’s counsel implored that the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) accuses the PML-N leader and his family members of acquiring assets through narcotics trade and the challan has since been submitted and the proceedings are pending before the ‘Special Court’ constituted under the Control of Narcotics Substance Act, 1997.
Interesting enough, another inquiry has recently been initiated by NAB on the same assets under the allegation of having been acquired through corruption or corrupt practices which is tantamount to the mockery of law, the petition added. The counsel further implored that a vilification campaign was launched to propagate the accusations and was false propaganda against Rana Sanaullah.
The formal orders of freezing all the assets of the petitioner, his family members and other relatives were passed by the investigating officer during the investigation and thereafter the said orders have been submitted before the learned trial court for confirmation, which are since pending.
The petitioner had hardly reached his home after he was granted bail on December 24, 2019, by LHC when he was served with a call up notice on December 27, 2019, by NAB whereby he was required to appear in person before the Combined Investigation Team (CIT) on January 2, 2020, in connection with an inquiry against the petitioner and others on the allegations of accumulation of assets beyond known sources of income.
The NAB chairman violating his jurisdictional power gave approval of the inquiry, the counsel added. Granting bail to Rana Sanaullah till March 25, the LHC’s divisional bench ordered him to submit two surety bonds of Rs 0.5 million each.
