Pre-arrest bail plea of TV anchor rejected
ISLAMABAD: A special judge on Thursday rejected the pre-arrest bail plea of television anchor Dr Shahid Masood in a corruption case.
Dr Masood appeared before the special judge, Kamran Basharat Mufti, during the hearing of his application seeking the pre-arrest bail in the corruption case filed against him.
The anchor is a former managing director and chairman of Pakistan Television (PTV) and allegedly involved in embezzlement of Rs37 million while acquiring the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) media rights in 2008 for which an agreement was signed with a fake company, namely M/S ISS.
Investigators in the case claimed that the amount had been released and it caused a loss of millions of dollars to the PTV as the state-run television had failed to acquire the PCB’s media rights from 2008 to 2013.
After hearing the arguments of Dr Masood’s counsel and the stance of the prosecution, judge Mufti reserved the judgement.
The judge, who also works as special judge for the control of narcotics substances (CNS) court and the intellectual property rights tribunal, after hearing Dr Masood’s case, started hearing cases related to the CNS.
He later went to his chamber to write the judgement and by the time he announced dismissal of Dr Masood’s plea the anchorperson was no more on the court premises.
According to the prosecution, Dr Masood had allegedly signed an agreement with a fake company to negotiate with the PCB for grant of rights to the PTV for coverage of matches played in Pakistan. It said that because of the agreement the PTV had to face heavy financial losses.
In June, non-bailable arrest warrants for Dr Masood were issued by the court of a senior civil judge.
After the rejection of Mr Masood’s pre-arrest bail plea, the FIA had started efforts for his arrest, an investigation officer in the case told Dawn.
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