Framing of charges against Nisar Morai, 13 others put off yet again

Charges against former Fishermen Co-operative Society (FCS) chairman Nisar Morai and 13 others in a corruption case could not be framed yet again because of the non-appearance of one of the accused.

An accountability court hearing the case pertaining to charges of huge corruption and illegal appointments made against 400 vacancies in the FCS put off the case proceedings till May 30 on Thursday.

The case was due for framing of charges at the previous hearing but the court was informed that Amjad Iqbal, one of the accused, was severely ill and it was not possible for him to appear in court. The AC had then adjourned the hearing till Thursday, however, on Thursday, the counsel moved an application once again and requested for an adjournment claiming Iqbal was sick.

His plea was granted and May 30 was set as the date to indict Morai and 13 other co-accused. Morai, former FCS vice-chairman Sultan Qamar Siddiqui and Haji Wali, who is out on bail from the Sindh High Court, were present at Thursday’s hearing where the court also issued non-bailable warrants of arrest for two absconding accused – Abdul Mannan and Abus Saeed Khan.

The corruption reference, which has been filed by the National Accountability Bureau and is being heard in accountability court-IV, claims that Morai, Siddiqui and others were involved in huge corruption and making illegal appointments of more than 400 employees in the FCS.

Earlier, the NAB authorities had picked up four officers of the FCS, Gul Munner, Shaukat Baloch, Haji Wali Muhammad and Abu Bakar, and after obtaining physical remand from the court concerned, had interrogated them.

According to officials, the men had confessed to having committed corruption of more than Rs5 billion on the directives of the former FSC chairman. Morai is also facing a murder case as he is alleged to have killed the then Pakistan Steel chairman Sajjad Hussain in 1998 in Defence Housing Authority.

In a separate case, the administrative judge of an accountability court extended the physical remand of Personal Secretary to the Local Government Secretary Ramazan Solangi and another official Qamar Javed till May 24.

In the hearing, the court was informed that Solangi and Javed had committed corruption of billion of rupees in government contracts, gathering funds against petrol head and providing jobs against 600 fake vacancies. Officials submitted that it was necessary to hold further interrogation in order to arrest their eight to 10 accomplices who had absconded. The court granted the extension of remand plea.