NAB appeal against suspension of Sharjeel Memon's arrest warrants dismissed

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed an appeal of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) through which it challenged the Sindh High Court’s (SHC) decision of suspending its warrants for the arrest of PPP leader Sharjeel Memon, ARY News reported.

Dismissing the appeal as withdrawn, a bench of the apex court observed that the SHC decision in which it made observations against the bureau won’t have any bearing on the trial proceedings against the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader.

“The SHC’s decision suspending the arrest warrants won’t be used as a legal reference,” the court ruled.

Sharjeel Memon, who was lately released from prison on bail, has been facing a number of  graft charges.

Earlier, on Dec 21, an accountability court had issued a show cause notice to the investigation officer of the assets reference against Memon over failure to submit report about the proclaimed offenders of the case.

Sharjeel Memon’s wife Sadaf Sharjeel and mother Zeenat Inaam Memon have been among the co-accused in the assets beyond means NAB reference. Both of them filed petitions for exemption from appearing in hearing of the case.

In the earlier hearing, court had summoned Sharjeel Memon’s wife and other co-accused on December 21. Former provincial minister was also absent from the accountability hearing.

The corruption reference stated that the investigators have found solid evidence of financial irregularities against Sharjeel Memon, his wife and other accused persons.

The reference also stated presence of records, which confirm charges of making assets beyond known sources of income by the suspects. The accused persons are facing over Rs2.27 billion corruption charges.

Another reference against Memon is also under proceeding over his alleged involvement in corruption worth Rs5.75 billion. Memon is accused of awarding government advertisements at exorbitant rates when he was Sindh’s information minister.

He was arrested by the accountability bureau in 2017 and remained in jail for 20 months. He is currently out of jail after the court granted him bail.