close
Tuesday March 19, 2024

Court extends Durrani’s remand for fourth time

By Our Correspondent
March 22, 2019

An accountability court granted on Thursday the National Accountability Bureau the custody of Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani for 10 more days for interrogation about graft charges against him.

According to NAB, Pakistan Peoples Party leader Durrani embezzled public funds, made illegal appointments against kickbacks and accumulated assets beyond recognizable income during his tenures as minister and speaker.

He was arrested by the anti-graft watchdog on February 20 from a hotel in Islamabad and later brought to Karachi. Thursday’s was the fourth extension of his remand by the court.

At the outset of the hearing, the NAB prosecutor moved an application before the accountability courts’ administrative judge, seeking a 15-day extension of the remand, contending that the investigation was move at a slow pace because of non-cooperation from the suspect.

He said Durrani would spend more time at the assembly than in the custody of NAB and, defending his plea, added that the investigators could obtain his remand for up to 90 days according to the law.

The judge asked the suspect if he had any complaint of torture in the captivity of NAB, to which he replied that he was being kept in a suffocative room and being given mental torture through the harassment of his family. Durrani negated the NAB’s claim and said he was not cooperating in the investigation, and added that there was no session of the assembly in the past week so he was fully available to the investigators yet they questioned him once only.

He said his brother was not allowed to meet him, his family, friends and servants were being harassed in the name of interrogation and their houses were being raided.

The NAB investigation officer replied that the suspect was being provided with the best possible facilities and was even provided with an air-conditioner for his ease. He said the investigators got little time for questioning because Durrani would wake up at noon.

Durrani again countered the prosecution claim and said he woke up at 5am daily for Fajr prayers and NAB was telling lies. Meanwhile, the NAB prosecutor asked if the suspect could explain the definition of harassment that he claimed his family suffered.

The judge, after listening to the arguments, approved the NAB plea and extended the physical remand of the suspect till March 30, directing the IO to bring a progress report to the next hearing.

According to the prosecution, Durrani in his current capacity as speaker and formerly as Sindh minister for local bodies committed offences of corruption and corrupt practices as defined in Section 9(a)(v) of the National Accountability Ordinance.

It added that the total income declared by the suspect from 1985 till June 2018 was Rs84,426,978, whereas the declared properties and other assets in his name as well as in his family members were worth Rs269,004,026. Moreover, there are several benami properties which allegedly belong to the suspect. A ruckus was observed at the courts as PPP workers and supporters of Durrani tried to enter the building but were barred by the guards. The guards also stopped the suspect’s brother Agha Masihuddin saying that no irrelevant person was allowed inside the court. He, however, managed to go through.

Talking to journalists at the court, Durrani said NAB had nothing incriminating against him but were just victimizing him for ulterior motives. Speaking of the gold recovered from a locker, he said his family owned those valuables for around 100 years and were all declared.