SC judge recuses himself from hearing Jang owner’s case

ISLAMABAD: Justice Umar Ata Bandial, who was heading a three-judge Supreme Court bench, on Wednesday recused himself from hearing a post-arrest bail plea filed by Mir Shakeelur Rehman, Chief Executive of the Jang Group of Newspapers.

At the commencement of the case, Justice Bandial said that for personal reasons he would not like to hear the matter and recused himself from the bench.

Justice Bandial, however, referred the matter back to Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed with a request to fix the hearing for next week when counsel Khawaja Haris requested the court to hear the case as early as possible.

The media tycoon, who is under detention since March 12, had moved an appeal against the Lahore High Court’s July 8 rejection of his bail plea.

The National Accountabi­lity Bureau (NAB), director general of Lahore NAB and investigation officer Muhammad Abid Hussain have been named as respondents in the petition.

The petition pleaded that the reopening of a 34-year-old matter relating to plots with respect to which neither the LDA nor any other authority or owner had raised any grievance, inevitably involved considerations extraneous to the law.