Industrialist, two sons sent to jail in graft case

HYDERABAD: The accountability court in Hyderabad has issued orders to send Iqbal Z Ahmed, along with his two sons and three others — all co-accused in the case — to Nara Jail by rejecting their request for an extension in bail.

On Saturday, Iqbal Z Ahmed’s sons Fasihuddin and Rafiuddin as well as others including Qazi Humayun, Asim Iftikhar, and Salamat Ali appeared for bail in the accountability court in Hyderabad along with lawyer Farooq H Naik.

The lawyer informed the court that after the NAB amendment, the reference stands reinstated which is why the accused’s bail needed to be approved again.

On being asked by the NAB court where the surety of the accused was if they were on bail, Naik informed the court that the surety had been returned, on which the court ordered the application be rejected instead of giving them pre-arrest bail. While the media did try to speak to Iqbal Z Ahmed as he left the NAB court, he refrained from commenting and engaging with the journalists present there.

According to NAB Prosecutor Jango Khan, the accused had obtained bail from the Sindh High Court, Hyderabad, while their surety was returned, and now that the NAB law has been amended, the accused approached the court.

NAB has accused Iqbal Z Ahmed of money laundering and corruption in the Jamshoro Joint Venture Limited Company (JJVL). The money laundering case against Ahmed goes back to December 2013, when Ahmed was accused of causing Rs29 billion in losses to the national exchequer, making illicit transactions worth billions and sending Rs1.7 billion abroad to acquire foreign exchange for payments related to his and others’ companies.

The NAB chairman had at the time approved the reference. After investigation, NAB filed a reference under 1/2020 in 2020.