FIA allowed to arrest Unity Foods’ CEO in graft case

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has suspended an administrative order of a magistrate exonerating the chief executive officer of a private firm in a graft case, and allowed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to arrest him for interrogation.

The court was informed, however, that the suspect had obtained interim pre-arrest bail until Sept 14. The high court ruled that, following suspension of the magistrate’s order, any subsequent bail order in the matter would have no legal effect.

On Aug 30, a judicial magistrate (Karachi East) discharged Muhammad Farrukh Amin Godil, CEO of Unity Foods Limited, a listed company operating in the edible oil and rice sectors, after refusing the FIA’s request for his physical remand for further interrogation and investigation. Other suspects, including Jalees Edhi, Amir Shehzad, Safdar Sajjad and Abdul Majeed Ghaziani, were remanded in FIA custody.

The state, through Additional Attorney General Barrister Mohsin Shahwani, subsequently filed a criminal miscellaneous application challenging the magistrate’s order.

SHC suspends magistrate’s order exonerating Godil, says subsequent bail order against suspect has no legal effect

He argued that the magistrate had misapplied an April order of the SHC restraining authorities from taking coercive action against the suspect. The AAG said that order had no nexus with the present case and had been passed in a separate inquiry under the money-laundering law.

He contended that Mr Godil was a primary accused in an FIR concerning alleged corporate crime and that the magistrate should not have discharged him without considering the distinction between the two matters.

A single-judge bench headed by Justice Miran Muhammad Shah observed that the magistrate was duty-bound to decide the remand matter urgently without disturbing the status quo of the investigation. The magistrate was required only to accept or reject the remand request and could not pass any other order.

“Any such discharge or any other order to that effect passed by the learned duty magistrate was patently illegal and in violation of the law,” the bench observed.

While suspending the impugned order until Sept 30, the bench allowed the FIA investigating officer to take the suspect into custody for questioning and investigation.

Referring to a Supreme Court judgment, the bench held that once the administrative order had been suspended, the entire structure based on it had fallen and any subsequent bail order would have no legal effect.

The court issued notice to the suspect for Sept 30 and directed the AAG to proceed in accordance with its observations.

The FIA registered the case against Mr Godil and other company officials on a reference from the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP).

According to the FIR, Mr Godil allegedly misappropriated Rs5.318 million of entrusted funds in favour of his mother, Fehmida Amin, under the guise of a “loan”. The SECP referral also cited an internal analysis showing a difference of around Rs44.7 billion between the company’s published accounts and its internal SAP records.

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2026