Sharjeel’s ‘frontman’ remanded to jail

An accountability court on Monday sent a suspected frontman of former Sindh information minister Sharjeel Memon to jail on judicial remand in an investigation pertaining to accumulating assets beyond income.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) presented Izhar Hussain before the accountability court judge seeking an extension in his physical remand because the investigation was still to be completed.

The judge, however, rejected the plea observing that the suspect had already spent almost two months in the investigators’ custody and they should ideally have completed the questioning. Hussain was arrested early last month from the DHA neighbourhood.

NAB maintained that some documents of properties purchased through illegal means were found on him. They said the suspect served as a frontman for Memon. Meanwhile, the judge asked NAB to file a reference by the next hearing on July 8.

The same court had recently granted NAB permission to interrogate Memon in connection with the case inside the jail against the request to allow them to arrest the former minister and shift him to their headquarters.

Embezzlement case

Memon is already facing a trial for embezzlement of public funds to the tune of Rs5.76 billion. He is accused of misusing his authority as information minister and illegally awarding advertisement contracts to different newspapers, channels and agencies at exorbitant rates. Hearing the case against the former minister and others on day-to-day basis, an accountability court has summoned another prosecution witness to record his testimony on Tuesday (today) as the defence concluded cross-questioning a banker.