Agha Siraj Durrani files fresh bail plea in SC

ISLAMABAD: Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani on Wednesday filed a fresh pre-arrest bail petition in the Supreme Court after addressing the registrar office’s objections.

The PPP leader, who has gone into hiding to avoid his arrest at the hands of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) after the SHC revoked his bail, filed the petition through his counsel.

He also filed a separate application requesting early hearing of the bail plea.

On November 13, the Supreme Court registrar office returned the pre-arrest bail plea of Agha Siraj Durrani with objections. The registrar office objected to Durrani’s failure to present himself for arrest after his bail petition rejected by the Sindh High Court.

The office has also objected over the petitioner’s failure to submit an undertaking.

The SHC had last month turned down the interim bail of provincial assembly speaker Agha Siraj Durrani in the assets reference filed by the corruption watchdog. The high court, however, allowed the bail petitions of Mr Durrani’s wife, three daughters, a son and two others in the same reference.

Subsequently, a NAB team raided the residence of Durrani to arrest him but it had to return empty-handed as he was not present there.

The bureau had filed a reference against the speaker, his brother Agha Masihuddin, wife, son, daughters as well as 13 others before a NAB court in 2019 for allegedly accumulating assets worth over Rs1.61 billion through illegal means.