KARACHI: Administrative Judge of National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Karachi declined the request for physical NAB custody of accused Iqbal Z Ahmed, than Chief Executive Officer of M/s Jamshoro Joint Venture Limited (JJVL) and gave transit remand for September 07 for produce him before proper court having jurisdiction. Who was alleged involved in mega money laundering scam.
On September, 05, 2019, investigation officer Abdul Fatah Ghanbhir produced above mentioned suspect and informed that he was arrested from Lahore and after obtaining transit remand produce him before this court for physical custody.
During the hearing, Muhammad Azhar Siddiqui advocate appeared before the court for accused and argued that this court has no jurisdiction to entertain the remand as all the bank accounts of the accused as well as his business is in Lahore, that NAB Lahore already conducted inquiry and the ground of arrest which were supplied to the accused in Lahore Court are not annexed with remand application and the ground of arrest which is available in present application are not disclosing any reason to conduct further inquiry/ investigation by the NAB Karachi.
He further argued that there is no call up notice issued to the accused and without any justification accused was arrested and all money laundering cases are try at Islamabad, therefore, this court has no jurisdiction to entertain instant application.
On the other hand, investigation officer only upon the report of financial monitoring unit (FMU) dated 08/05/2018 and authorization of inquiry and stated that physical custody of accused may be given in the NAB custody.
After the hearing, court passed order and observes in its order that “I have heard both the parties and perused the record, it reveals that investigation officer is rely upon authorization of inquiry dated 13/05/2019 but it is simply mentioning that accused is involved in the commission of corruption and corrupt practices i.e suspicious transaction report which is cognizable under NAB Ordinance, 1999, FMU report relied upon by the investigation officer showing bank accounts of the accused in Karachi in which suspicious transaction was generated, simply on the basis of STR the jurisdiction cannot be lies to the Karachi NAB Court.
Court further observes that since the investigation officer has failed to satisfy the jurisdiction of Karachi, the request for physical remand is declined and since the transit remand is intact up to September 07, 2019 so accused may be produced before the proper court having jurisdiction.
