MUHAMMAD YAWAR ALI, J.---Through this petition filed under section 498, Cr.P.C., the petitioners, Zafar Ali and Allah Yar seek pre-arrest bail in FIR No,1145/2014 dated 10-11-2014 for offences under sections 420, 468, 471, P.P.C. Registered at Police Station City Chiniot, District Chiniot.
2. Arguments have been heard and the record perused.
3. The FIR has been lodged with an inordinate delay for which no plausible explanation is forthcoming. The date of occurrence as given in the body of the FIR is 25-9-2014 whereas the same was lodged with a long delay on 10-11-2014. The petitioner, Zafar Ali filed a civil suit qua the property mentioned in the FIR before the Senior Civil Judge Chiniot in which the complainant is also a party on 23-9-2014 prior to the lodging of the FIR and an order of status quo was granted by the trial Court on 23-9-2014. The said civil suit pertaining to the property mentioned in the FIR is still pending adjudication and has not been decided sq far. The petitioners have been charged with offences which do not fall within the prohibitory clause of section 497, Cr.P.C, hence, in cases not punishable with death, imprisonment for life or ten years imprisonment grant of bail is a rule and refusal is an exception as has been held by the august Supreme Court of Pakistan in Tariq Bashir and 5 others v.
The State (PLD 1995 SC 34). It has vehemently been asserted by the learned counsel for the petitioners that theFIR has been lodged by the complainant with mala fide intention. And ulterior motives on account of civil litigation which is pending between the parties. An assertion made by the learned counsel for the petitioners that the petitioners are previous non-convict has not been.
Negated by the learned Deputy District Public Prosecutor.
4. For what has been stated above, this petition is accepted, ad-interim pre-arrest bail earlier allowed to the petitioners vide order dated A 4-2-2015 is hereby confirmed subject to their furnishing bail bonds in the sum of Rs,50,000 (Rupees fifty thousand only) each with one surety each in the like amount to the satisfaction of the learned trial Court.