KARACHI: The accountability court <span class="aBn" tabindex="0" data-term="goog_884389002"><span class="aQJ">on Friday</span></span> has remanded Dr Asim Hussain to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for 7 days while the NAB had demanded a 14-day remand of the accused Dr Asim. Police had brought him to court from Gulberg Police Station where he was detained for 4-day police remand. On producing him in the accountability court, police investigator DSP Altaf Hussain apprised the court that the investigation could not establish the accused as guilty of any crime as the entire data that was compiled by the JIT under paramilitary Rangers failed to prove the charges and therefore the accused deserved to be released. However, the NAB official in opposition to police’s appeal successfully pleaded and managed to get custody of Dr Asim for 7 days. The attorney representing the NAB in support of 15-day remand stated before the court that the accused is booked in 5 cases of money laundering and land scams, which needed to be investigated further. The employees of PSO and SSGC were referred to Ziauddin Hospital for treatment on pressure of the accused while the accused inducted staffers for the SSGC with the assistance of SSGC’s high officials including managing director and deputy managing director. Furthermore, the accused is involved in money laundering for billions. The accused also sanctioned illegal connections to Karachi Electric on commercial and industrial grounds. The NAB enquiry No against the accused is 231097 and the authority have to conduct detailed investigations on aforementioned charges against the accused and hence he should be remanded to the NAB for 14 days. Attorney representing the accused Dr Hussain in his arguments said that the accused was in detention for 100 days and when the accused was in police’s custody, the NAB team had visited the Gulberg police station twice but did not initiate any investigation. The NAB have also failed to produce any solid evidence against the accused and hence the request for 14-day remand should not be entertained. Any further remand of the accused would be a plain violation for the Article 9 of the constitution of Pakistan. Attorney representing the paramilitary Rangers opposed the police’s point for releasing the accused Dr Hussain and he argued that the police did not have any lawful authority for releasing the accused booked in cases with clauses of anti-terrorism. He further said that the Deputy Medical Officer of Dr Ziauddin Hospital had as approved disclosed that Dr Hussain was the sole authority behind offering medical facility to the injured terrorists. On the other hand, the law officer of Rangers had filed a petition in the Sindh High Court against the investigation officer in Dr Hussain’s case. The law officer in the petition mentioned that DSP Altaf Hussain is using tactic to change the base of the cases against Dr Hussain on influence of senior police officers and political figures. The Rangers through the petition appealed to the higher court that the higher court should pass an order for the replacement of the investigation officer DSP Altaf Hussain. Meanwhile, Dr Hussain on his appearance in the accountability court while talking to the newsmen said all the cases in which he has so far been booked and evidences on offering medical treatment to the injured terrorists are fake and bogus. He said he is not against actions so far taken by the Rangers with regard to operation in Karachi but still he was detained for 90 days. He alleged Rangers had produced those fake evidences and recorded his statement on gun point. NNI
