Pre-arrest bail of Salman, Usman Farooqui confirmed
January 06, 2010
Karachi
The Sindh High Court (SHC) confirmed on Tuesday, interim bail for Salman Farooqui, the principal secretary to President Asif Ali Zardari, and former Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) chairman Usman Farooqui. The two have been accused in corruption cases.
Salman Farooqui is facing charges before accountability court in Karachi regarding alleged irregularities in the textile quota as a federal secretary in the 1990s. His other bail applications pertained to cases of alleged irregularities in the import of gold; a reference in this regard is pending in the Rawalpindi accountability court; two other corruption matters before the Federal Investigation Agency have been adjourned by the court till January 25.
The interim bail of former Steel Mills chairman Usman Farooqui, who is accused of corruption and causing a huge loss of Rs157.630 million to the PSM in 1995 during the purchase of ferrous manganese contract, has been confirmed by the SHC.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had filed a reference against Usman Farooqui, former PSM (material and store) director Captain (retd) Mohammad Haroon, and other PSM officials for awarding contracts for Ferrous manganese (high carbon) to private contractors at higher rates of Rs48,484 per metric tonne and causing a loss to the national exchequer. The case against Usman Farooqui had been withdrawn by virtue of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) in 2008; it was reopened by NAB, however, after the Supreme Court (SC) judgment against the NRO.
The petitioner’s counsel, Raza Hashmi, contended that all other co-defendants in the case had been acquitted by the Accountability Court (AC) due to lack of evidence and the petitioner was present in jail at the time the reference was filed against him but he was not produced before the trial court to defend charges against him.
Usman Farooqui was also convicted in five corruption references by the AC, but all convictions were set aside after the promulgation of the NRO; after the SC judgment against the NRO, however, NAB filed an application for the revival of his appeals in the SHC.
The SHC also granted interim pre-arrest bail to Siraj Shamsuddin in a case pertaining to illegal recruitments in the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).
Shamsuddin, who was the additional secretary at the Prime Minister Secretariat, along with former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, AVM (Rtd) Umer Farooq, ex-MD of PIA, Director PIAC Ghulam Qadir Shah, and political secretary to PM Naheed Khan, was named as a defendant in a NAB reference for illegally recruiting 1,393 people in different cadres in the PIAC; posting people abroad; and promoting various officials by rebuffing the rules. Former prime minister, the late Benazir Bhutto, and others were acquitted by the AC in November 2005.
The Sindh High Court (SHC) confirmed on Tuesday, interim bail for Salman Farooqui, the principal secretary to President Asif Ali Zardari, and former Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) chairman Usman Farooqui. The two have been accused in corruption cases.
Salman Farooqui is facing charges before accountability court in Karachi regarding alleged irregularities in the textile quota as a federal secretary in the 1990s. His other bail applications pertained to cases of alleged irregularities in the import of gold; a reference in this regard is pending in the Rawalpindi accountability court; two other corruption matters before the Federal Investigation Agency have been adjourned by the court till January 25.
The interim bail of former Steel Mills chairman Usman Farooqui, who is accused of corruption and causing a huge loss of Rs157.630 million to the PSM in 1995 during the purchase of ferrous manganese contract, has been confirmed by the SHC.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had filed a reference against Usman Farooqui, former PSM (material and store) director Captain (retd) Mohammad Haroon, and other PSM officials for awarding contracts for Ferrous manganese (high carbon) to private contractors at higher rates of Rs48,484 per metric tonne and causing a loss to the national exchequer. The case against Usman Farooqui had been withdrawn by virtue of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) in 2008; it was reopened by NAB, however, after the Supreme Court (SC) judgment against the NRO.
The petitioner’s counsel, Raza Hashmi, contended that all other co-defendants in the case had been acquitted by the Accountability Court (AC) due to lack of evidence and the petitioner was present in jail at the time the reference was filed against him but he was not produced before the trial court to defend charges against him.
Usman Farooqui was also convicted in five corruption references by the AC, but all convictions were set aside after the promulgation of the NRO; after the SC judgment against the NRO, however, NAB filed an application for the revival of his appeals in the SHC.
The SHC also granted interim pre-arrest bail to Siraj Shamsuddin in a case pertaining to illegal recruitments in the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).
Shamsuddin, who was the additional secretary at the Prime Minister Secretariat, along with former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, AVM (Rtd) Umer Farooq, ex-MD of PIA, Director PIAC Ghulam Qadir Shah, and political secretary to PM Naheed Khan, was named as a defendant in a NAB reference for illegally recruiting 1,393 people in different cadres in the PIAC; posting people abroad; and promoting various officials by rebuffing the rules. Former prime minister, the late Benazir Bhutto, and others were acquitted by the AC in November 2005.
