Agha Siraj Durrani’s family told to appear in court by Dec 17 or be declared POs

An accountability court has issued advertisements in newspapers against 11 absconders, including family members of Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani, in a case pertaining to alleged accumulation of assets worth Rs1.6 billion through illegal means.

Copies of the advertisement, which was published in newspapers on December 3, was submitted to the accountability court on Thursday.

The accountability court-III judge, Farid Anwar Qazi, on a previous hearing had directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to initiate proceedings under the sections 87 and 88 of the Code of Criminal Procedure against the absconding suspects, including Durrani’s wife Naheed, his daughters Sonya, Shahana, Sara and Sanam, son Agha Shahbaz, and six others, namely Muhammad Irfan, Gulbahar Baloch, Shakeel Soomro, Syed Muhammad Shah, Ghulam Murtaza and Munawar Ali.

Earlier, the NAB investigation officer had informed the court that the nominated members of the Sindh Assembly speaker’s family had gone to the United States and the United Arab Emirates, as per their travel history obtained through the Federal Investigation Agency, while the rest of the absconding suspects had gone into hiding. The absconders’ CNICs were also blocked on the court orders.

The advertisement read that the absconders, who according to the anti-graft watchdog had gone into hiding to avoid arrests, must appear in the court on December 17 at 9am.

They were warned that if they failed to comply with the directive, the court would initiate proceedings to declare them proclaimed offenders.

Durrani, who belongs to the Pakistan Peoples Party, was arrested by NAB from Islamabad on February 20 for the investigation into his alleged movable and immovable assets beyond his known sources of income, making 352 illegal appointments, embezzlement of public funds in the construction of the MPA Hostel and the new Sindh Assembly building, as well as the appointment of project directors for these schemes.

NAB had filed a reference against Durrani and 19 people, including the absconders, in May earlier this year. The bureau maintained that the Sindh Assembly speaker had accumulated assets beyond his income and could not account for a difference of Rs1,610,669,528 between his declared total income from 1985 to 2018 and the assets in his, his family, dependants and benamidars’ names.

The federal anti-graft watchdog alleged that the fortune was made out of kickbacks, embezzlement of public funds and other illegal means. Durrani, who has been in judicial custody, is currently confined at his office in the Sindh Assembly. Some other suspects, including Agha Masihuddin, Mitha Khan, Tufail Sheikh, Gulzar Ahmed, Zulfiqar Dahar and Shamshad Khatoon, are on bail.