KARACHI – Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday rejected the bail pleas for former provincial information minister Sharjeel Memon and 12 others in a graft case.
SHC Chief Justice Ahmed Ali Shaikh, who headed the two-judge bench rejected the request of the suspects to extend their bails in the case, after hearing the Rs5.76 billion corruption case filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
Following the bail rejections, NAB officials are assumed to take detain the accused. Rangers have also been stationed outside the premises of the court.
Meanwhile, Memon and other accused are consulting with their legal team inside the court, without leaving the premises of the court.
SHC rejected Sharjeel Memon’s plea seeking removal of his name from ECL
According to sources, it is illegal to detain an accused within the premises of the court; nevertheless, a NAB team has been on standby outside the court to arrest Memon as soon as he leaves.
The suspects are indicted for corruption worth Rs5.76 billion in the allocations of advertisements for the Sindh government’s electronic media awareness campaigns.
Memon ended his nearly two-year-long self-imposed exile by returning to Pakistan in March this year, where he was arrested on his arrival by NAB but was later released on bail.
The other involved in the case include former Sindh information secretary Zulfiqar Ali Shalwani, members of private advertising firms and officials of the information department.