Accountability court allows family to meet Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman

LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was ordered by an accountability court on Saturday to make arrangements for meetings Editor-in-Chief of the Jang Geo Media Group Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman with his family members in accordance with the law.
Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman’s son Mir Ibrahim Rahman, mother and wife Shaheena Shakil had approached the court, seeking permission to visit him on a daily basis.
The applicants through their counsel stated that MSR is an old and sick person who needs medicines and other additional items for the safety of his health regularly.
The counsel pointed out that the visit by Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman’s family on a daily basis was vital to ensure the provision of medicines, food and other items. There is a serious health risk due to various ailments and if the above-mentioned facilities are not provided on a daily basis to MSR, his health will go down.
He added that if the permission was not granted, he would suffer irreparable loss detrimental to his health and life.
After hearing arguments, Accountability Court-I Judge Ameer Muhammad Khan accepted the application and directed the NAB to proceed in accordance with the law and SOP on the subject and facilitate the meeting.
An accountability court on Friday had granted 12-day physical remand of Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman to the NAB in a property case.
The NAB has arrested MSR in a case related to a property bought allegedly illegally from a government entity more than 34 years ago. The property, in fact, had been bought from a private party, and all the evidences, including legal requirements like duty and taxes, to this effect was provided to the anti-graft body.
He had gone on Thursday on a call-up notice for verification of the complaint, but the arrest was made.
He said: “In the past 18 months, the NAB sent our reporters, producers and editors, directly and indirectly, over a dozen notices, threatening shutdown of our channels (via PEMRA) due to the Jang/Geo Group’s reporting and its programmes about the NAB. In its defence, the NAB has in writing said that it is a constitutionally-protected institution that can’t be criticized.”
The spokesperson said the NAB also has through several means tried to persuade the Jang/Geo Group to go easy on the institution, stop stories and do others in its favour at the expense of the full truth.
He said the Jang/Geo Group will not stop any reporters, producers or anchors from any story that is based on merit and at the same time will include the NAB version.
In this case, the NAB denies all allegations and claims they are independently pursuing all cases and have not been asked to do so by the democratically-elected government.

Source: GEO TV