Ex-deputy info secy declared proclaimed offender

An accountability court declared former deputy information secretary Aneeta Baloch a proclaimed offender on Saturday. Baloch is a co-accused in a corruption reference against former provincial minister Sharjeel Memon and others.

The investigation officer of the case told the court that despite all his efforts, Baloch could not be arrested. The court declared her a proclaimed offender and ordered confiscation of her movable and immovable properties.

In the case of Memon, the court was informed that the former minister was on protective bail by the Sindh High Court till December 26.

The court later adjourned the hearing till January 7.

Memon faces charges of involvement in corruption of over Rs5 billion.

There are 13 accused are under detention in the case. Six others have already obtained pre-arrest bail. The court directed the NAB prosecutor to provide copies of the allegations to the accused.

NAB had filed a reference against Memon and others for committing corruption in the award of advertisements of provincial government’s awareness campaigns in electronic media involving over Rs5 billion.

The reference, sent by the NAB chairman, said that the investigation was conducted regarding corruption and corrupt practices in the advertisement awareness campaigns on TV and FM channels between July 2013 and June 2015 and it was found that the accused acted in connivance with each other resulting in a loss of Rs3,279,177,029 to the national exchequer. It was revealed in the investigation that an amount of Rs5,766,479,766 was paid to seven advertisement companies in violation of the Sindh Public Procurement Rules 2010.

The reference alleged that the former information minister illegally approved releasing of official advertisements to electronic media for awareness campaigns through the so-called pre-qualified advertising agencies without due competition.

It was alleged that Sharjeel Memon issued contracts to favourite advertising agencies at exorbitant rates even without confirming the market rates.

Besides, the former information minister directly approved the media plan submitted by the advertising agencies.

Besides the former information minister, former provincial information secretary Zulfiqar Ali Shalwani, deputy directors of the information department Aneeta Baloch, Mansoor Ahmed Rajput and Yousuf Kaboro, Syed Masood Hashmi, Gulzar Ali and Salman Mansoor of Adarts and Inam Aktar were among the 17 accused cited in the reference.