A court in Islamabad on Monday rejected pre-arrest bail applications of 19, out of 22 Capital Development Authority (CDA) employees, who were facing allegations of possessing fake documents, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
All 19 employees were taken into custody in the court.
The court, however, accepted the bail applications of Muhammad Aslam, Amjad Ali, Palis Khan and Muhammad Nazir.
Special Judge Central Humayun Dilawar heard the case.
Speaking on the occasion, the defence council said that the prosecution did not bother to see the inquiry conducted by the CDA in 2017.
“A security guard, naeb qasid, a driver and a lift operator are suspects in the case,” he told the court.
He argued there existed no mechanism to verify the school leaving certificate. “Most of these employees are going to retire in one or two years,” he said, and wondered whether there was any chance that these employees could tamper with the record.
The lawyer further said that if today school managements were not verifying the certificates, this did not imply that these certificates were fake.
He was of the view that if the FIA wanted to see the record of his clients, it better approached the CDA for the purpose. “I am at a loss to understand what the CDA will get out of this,” he asked.
He opined that school leaving certificate was no degree that could be verified. “No certificate before matriculation can be verified from anywhere.”
The lawyer said that the CDA had already penalized these grade-4 employees.
He requested the court to accept the bail applications of his clients.
The FIA’s lawyer, on the other hand, sought custody of the employees for interrogation.
The FIA had registered a case against 22 CDA employees for allegedly possessing fake documents.
Reporter: Hashir Warraich