Indictment of Siraj Durrani, 18 others once again deferred

An accountability court once again deferred the indictment of Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani and 18 others in a graft reference as one of the accused has yet to be recovered from the coronavirus.

In May 2019, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) filed a reference against Durrani, his spouse, children, brother and others for possessing assets worth around Rs1.6 billion allegedly made through illegal means.

The anti-graft body said Durrani could not account for a difference of Rs1,610,669,528 between his declared total income from 1985 to 2018 and the assets, including properties, vehicles and others valuables, in his, his family, dependants and benamidar’s names which surfaced during the investigation. It accused a total of 19 people, including his wife Naheed, son Shahbaz, daughters Sanam, Sonya, Shahana and Sara, brother Agha Masihuddin, Zulfiqar Dahar, Shamshad Khatoon, Munawar Ali, Ghulam Murtaza, Muhammad Ifran, Shakeel Soomro, Gulbahar Baloch, Aslam Langah, Tufail Shah, Mitha Khan, Muhammad Shah and Gulzar Ahmed, of colluding in the corruption.

At the outset of the hearing, the defence attorney for Khatoon told the judge that his client was still unwell with Covid-19 and could not make it to the court for being under quarantine. He sought deferment on behalf of his client.

The judge, approving the request, fixed the indictment for November 20. The court directed all parties to ensure their presence at the next hearing.

With the reference, the anti-graft watchdog attached a list of 27 declared and undeclared assets, including properties, investments, vehicles, in Durrani and family’s name and stated that they valued Rs479.4 million, however, the accused showed them to be worth Rs151.6 million. Furthermore, NAB showed Durrani the beneficiary of seven benami properties, of these six in DHA and one in Malir, worth over Rs1 billion, that were allegedly purchased in the name of his servants.

It added that six of these properties were sold to different people while one was still in his possession. NAB maintained that Durrani provided incomplete and partial details of his assets and income so the details were obtained from the Federal Board of Revenue and the Election Commission of Pakistan.

It said the total income of his family, as declared in the FBR, was Rs110.4 million, whereas he declared it to be Rs82 million through salary, agriculture, business, rental, bank and fishpond. It said Durrani, after becoming the Sindh local bodies’ minister, and then the speaker, accumulated assets and pecuniary resources through illegal means and in connivance with the others named in the reference. It stated the named persons had committed an offence of corruption as defined in Sections 9(a)(iii)(iv)(v)(xii) and 10 of the National

Accountability Ordinance.