LAHORE, Aug 11: The Federal Investigation Agency is moving the Supreme Court against the Lahore High Court’s verdict of granting bail to human smuggler Malik Bashiruddin and his nephew Malik Anis.

The LHC had on July 18 suspended the accumulated 14 years’ rigorous imprisonment and Rs200,000 fine each awarded by the special judge to Malik Bashir and Malik Anis.

The FIA officials told Dawn that the LHC suspended the sentence on the grounds that there had been no “direct evidence” against the accused.

The accused were convicted on May 11 under sections 18 (preparation of fake documents) and 22 (sending people abroad on doctored documents) of the Immigration Ordinance, 1979.

They were sentenced for seven years each under each section and both the sentences had to be run concurrently.

The officials said the agency had recommended to the law ministry to depute a law officer to plead the case in the Supreme Court for cancellation of their bail.

The ministry sources said Tariq Shameem, the standing council, had been asked to pursue the case.

The Supreme Court is likely to take up the matter in a couple of days.

Malik Bashir, known for running a human trafficking network in and outside the country, was arrested in May, 2003, after his bail was rejected in a case by the LHC.

He and his nephew were chargesheeted in Aug, 2004, for allegedly taking Rs4.5 million from three people for arranging their travel to Canada on forged documents.

They had also allegedly bribed an immigration officer for arranging their travel. However, an immigration inspector caught them before boarding the plane.

Besides sentencing Malik Bashir and Malik Anis, the special judge had also declared former’s son Shaqeeb alias Shani and the three passengers proclaimed offenders in the case.

The FIA officials said the passengers’ statement before a magistrate that they did give the money to Malik Bashir had actually weakened the case.

Besides this case, some 12 cases have already been registered against Malik Bashir in FIA (Karachi and Rawalpindi) offices.

It may, however, be noted that the official files containing the record of cases against him were stolen last year from the vehicle of an FIA official who had parked it outside a hotel.