Pak courts reject Rehman Malik's pleas

Two Pakistani courts have turned down Interior Minister Rehman Malik's requests seeking exemption from personal appearance for the hearing of two cases that were reopened after the Supreme Court annulled a graft amnesty last month.

The court in Faisalabad and a division bench of the Lahore High Court headed by Chief Justice Khwaja Mohammad Sharif rejected Malik's pleas on Tuesday.

The Federal Investigation Agency had registered a case against Inspector Shaukat Maqsood and Malik in Faisalabad in 1999 for misusing official powers.

The inspector was later exonerated when Malik was serving in the FIA when the case was instituted. He, however, secured pre-arrest bail after the case was reopened recently.

During Tuesday's proceedings, Malik requested the court to exempt him from physical appearances but the judge turned down his plea and ordered him to appear in person at the next hearing on February 3.

Meanwhile, the division bench of the Lahore High Court extended till February 25 the suspension of Malik's conviction in two cases filed against him by the National Accountability Bureau.

The bench also issued notice to NAB seeking its response to Malik's application asking permission to amend the main appeal against his conviction and to place some case-related documents on record.

Malik was convicted in two cases, one related to the receipt of two cars as illegal gratification for the purchase of official vehicles by the FIA and another related to the alleged theft of gold and jewellery from the house of a man in Lahore.

Image: Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik