Court to hear lawyers in graft cases against Dr Asim on December 14

An accountability court has fixed December 14 as the date for the next hearing of two corruption cases against former federal petroleum minister Dr Asim Hussain and five other people charged with misappropriating around Rs462billion.

The court had indicted Hussain along with five other people in the Rs462 billion corruption reference on May 6. However, in the Jamshoro Joint Venture Limited (JJVL) reference, the charges are yet to be framed.

The ex-minister, businessman Iqbal Z Ahmed, Shoaib Siddiqui, Zohaib Warsi, Zahid Mukhtar and Basharat Mirza, a former managing director and acting general manager of the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL), were alleged to have awarded contracts to the JJVL, a privately-managed gas processing company.

The investigators alleged that the private company was allowed to process gas from five fields in lower Sindh without conducting an open auction, signing agreements and other necessary procedures required in the law; hence, causing a loss of Rs17.338billion to the national exchequer.

In the case of Hussain, some witnesses had claimed that his Ziauddin Hospital was not a charity welfare organization; instead, it was a commercial venture. A witness said it could be easily proved from the audit reports that the Ziauddin Hospital was a pure commercial venture and it was no welfare organisation.

Hussain, who has recently been appointed president of the Karachi chapter of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), has levelled serious allegations against National Accountability Bureau (NAB) authorities, claiming that documents had been tempered with and matters presented before the court in a fraudulent manner.

He demanded that the NAB officials concerned should be tried for fraud because they had implicated him in false cases.

On Thursday, the accountability court put off the hearing till December 14 after noting that the counsel had failed to appear.

Talking to journalists outside the courtroom, Hussain said he was thankful to PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhuto Zardari for appointing him the party’s president in Karachi. He further said that it was the PPP workerst that had made great sacrifices for the cause of democracy. 

He said he was proud to be a part of the PPP that was committed to addressing all problems of the people of Pakistan. He said his party would change the fate of the country by addressing unemployment and other social and economic problems. 

NBWs against Altaf

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Thursday reissued non-bailable arrest warrants against Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) founder Altaf Hussain and MQM Pakistan leader Dr Farooq Sattar in some eight provocative speech cases. The court fixed December 26 as the next date of hearing.

Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar and Sindh Assembly Opposition Leader Khawaja Izharul Hasan were present in the court. The court also extended Hasan’s interim bail till December 26.