Senior Civil Judge Islamabad Shabbir Bhatti on Monday awarded a one-year sentence to former Auditor General of Pakistan Akhtar Buland Rana for concealing facts about his dual nationality. The federal government sacked Rana in 2015 after the Supreme Judicial Council found him guilty of misconduct whereas Federal Investigation Agency had registered an FIR against him for obtaining five Pakistani passports while still holding a Canadian passport.

Prosecutor of the FIA pleaded before the Senior Civil Judge that a deputy director (policy) of the Immigration and Passport has confirmed that Rana had never declared his Canadian nationality. However, the counsel for Rana, Taimoor Aslam Khan has decided to challenge the Senior Civil Judge decision who found his client guilty by accepting the prosecution's version which is based on the argument that Rana was found guilty of the offence under Section 6 of the Passports Act, 1974.

Talking to Business Recorder, Taimoor Aslam Khan informed that Senior Civil Judge has awarded sentence to Rana twice, six months each. "Besides filing bail plea, we are filing an application before the court of law seeking suspension of the sentence as well," said Taimoor.

According to the appeal against the decision of the Senior Civil Judge which would be filed before the Session Judge West Islamabad on August 01 (today), it has been claimed that passport issue was not an allegation and the charge was subsequently leveled on the basis of mala fide intentions when Rana pointed out Rs 480 billion circular debt on a TV programme.

One of the grounds of the appeal in the matter is that the trial court passed the verdict in oblivion as there is not even an iota of evidence on the record to establish the allegation. "The prosecution has not produced any evidence on the point of willful concealment," stated the appeal.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017