ISLAMABAD: Television anchor Dr Shahid Masood on Saturday challenged in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) the special judge central’s judgement of dismissing his pre-arrest bail plea in a corruption case.

Mr Masood through his counsel Shah Khawar filed a petition, saying that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) was victimising him for being critical to the government.

It may be mentioned that the pre-arrest bail of Mr Masood was rejected by Judge Kamran Basharat Mufti on Thursday. However, when the judge announced his decision the anchor had left the court premises.

While the FIA is making efforts for Mr Masood’s arrest, his counsel filed the petition before the IHC seeking his pre-arrest bail in the case related to alleged embezzlement in Pakistan Television during his stint as the state-run PTV’s managing director and chairman.

The anchor is 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 PTV as the state-run television had failed to acquire the PCB’s media rights from 2008 to 2013.

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 PTV for coverage of matches played in Pakistan. It said that because of the agreement PTV had to face heavy financial losses.

In the petition, Mr Masood pointed out that he was not nominated in the First Information Report registered in this case.

He claimed that if he was arrested he would suffer an irreparable loss to his repute and health and requested the court to grant him bail till adjudication of the complaint filed against him by the FIA before the special judge central.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2018

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