Betel leaf smuggling case transferred to Customs court

LAHORE:An accountability court Judge Amjad Nazeer on Monday transferred references related to betel leaf smuggling to Customs court after defence counsel objected that according to amended NAB ordinance such cases does not fall in accountability court jurisdiction. It is said that it is first decision under the Amended NAB Ordinance which came in to force on December 28, 2018.

As the hearing of references started Monday, defence counsel Muzaffar Ali in his arguments objected to the court jurisdiction and said that after newly-amended law of the NAB an accountability court could not hear these cases. Muzaffar argued that under the amended law these cases should be transferred to a customs court for hearing as per clause 2 of the new ordinance.

The court after hearing the arguments of the counsel reserved the decision on the subject for a while and later transferred the cases to Customs court. The court ordered accused to appear before the Customs court on January 23.

GCU audit: Government College University (GCU) Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Asghar Zaidi and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Lahore Director General Major (retd) Shahzad Saleem have held a meeting to discuss collaboration between the two institutes in promoting good governance and transparency at GCU.

According to a press release, Prof Zaidi and Shahzad Saleem met at the latter’s office on Monday alongside the GCU Faculty Deans Prof Dr Sultan Shah and Prof Dr Ahmed Adnan, Treasurer Abid Shahzad and Additional Registrar Dr Shaukat Ali. A senior director of NAB was also present. The Vice Chancellor informed the NAB about the newly-formed audit committee for inquiry into the report regarding foreign faculty hiring programme at the university’s Abdus Salam School of Mathematical Sciences (ASSMS).

“The audit committee included among others two deans, treasurer, additional registrar and resident auditor,” Prof Zaidi said.