Former NICL chief, co-accused acquitted in corruption case

LAHORE: An Accountability Court on Saturday exonerated former National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) chairman Ayaz Khan Niazi and all co-accused in a corruption scam involving billions of rupees.

Accountability Court Judge Chaudhry Ameer Muhammad Khan presided over the case and acquitted all accused the case.

The court said that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had failed miserably to prove its case against the accused.

The judge remarked that the watchdog also failed to prove the allegation of absconding of nominated persons, Mohsin Habib Waraich and Javed Syed.

The AC dismissed arrest warrants for the accused as the NAB’s witness also failed to produce documentary evidence of the plot price before the court.

The verdict further stated that another witness of the anti graft watchdog, who is a patwari, submitted incredible evidence as the records were not updated. The court held the record of no value and rejected it. The decision stated that there was no evidence in the NAB record that could determine the actual value of the NICL plot. The NAB could not prove its case even at the point of the market value of the NICL plot. It did not produce any bank record or other evidence about the NICL plot, it added.

The Rs6 billion NICL scam had surfaced in 2009-10, when Mohsin Habib Warraich’s company purchased 803 kanals from the NICL in Lahore for Rs1.68 billion.