Dubai property purchase case: SHC sets aside acquittal of former NICL chairman

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Friday set aside the acquittal of former chairman National Insurance Company Limited Ayaz Khan Niazi and other co-accused in NICL’s Dubai office property purchase case.

The court ordered that the trial court shall proceed the case against the respondents after framing charge and decide the same strictly in accordance with the law.National Accountability Bureau had challenged the acquittal of former NICL chief Ayaz Khan Niazi and co-accused Syed Hur Gardezi by the accountability court on December 22, 2014 in a NAB corruption case pertaining to the purchase of NICL office property in Dubai.

According to the NAB, the respondent being the chairman of NICL purchased an office at Dubai in 2009 worth Rs1.69 billion at much higher rates and caused a loss to the national exchequer. Former NICL chairman and co-accused were acquitted by the trial court by granting their acquittal application before indictment of the accused in the case.

NAB Prosecutor Munsif Jan submitted in the appeal that the trial court allowed the acquittal application of the accused without considering the relevant evidence produced by the NAB. He submitted that NAB was not provided an opportunity of hearing and relevant evidence, which resulted into miscarriage of justice. He submitted that the accused were involved in white collar crime for which evidence was available in Dubai and the trial court should have decided the case on merit rather than acquitting the respondents by allowing their application prior to the trial proceedings. Respondents’ counsel supported the trial court order and submitted that no evidence was available with the trial court and the allegation with regard to purchasing property in Dubai at a higher market rate was not correct.

The SHC’s division bench, headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro, observed that it has come on record previously that the Federal Investigation Agency’s role in finding and maintaining the evidence was already compromised and due to the intervention of Supreme Court, the matter was sent to NAB for trial.