Transit remand of Dr Hussain’s accomplices denied

Karachi
Transit remands of two alleged accomplices of Dr Asim Hussain were declined by a judicial magistrate on Friday, asking the National Accountability Court (NAB) to produce the accused in NAB’s own courts.
Arrested on August 28, a day after Dr Hussain’s detention, Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) deputy director Shoaib Warsi and former managing director Zuhair Siddiqui were handed over to the NAB following the expiration of their 90-day remands.
The two were said to have colluded with Dr Hussain, the key accused, in corrupt and illegal activities.
Warsi and Siddiqui were arrested along with another employee of the SSGC, Kamran Ahmed, following a raid at the company’s head office.
The detainees were produced in the court of judicial magistrate (East) Javed Malik for acquiring a remand for the time being since their sanctioned remands had lapsed.
The court directed NAB officials to approach the concerned court, instead of asking a subordinate court to grant remands on legal matters it had no jurisdiction over.
SSGC’s chief financial officer, Muhammad Amin Rajput was the fourth official of the company to also have been arrested and detained for 90 days.
The high-profile arrests came a day later of Dr Hussain’s arrest on August 26 while he was presiding over a meeting of the Sindh Higher Education Commission (HEC) - of which he served as a president till his arrest.
An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Thursday remanded the former petroleum minister into police custody for four days after cases pertaining to corruption and facilitation of terrorists were registered against him at the North Nazimabad police station, after his 90-day remand expired.
Dr Hussain was said to have treated terrorists including members of the Lyari gang-war at the two branches of his hospital – Dr Ziauddin Hospital.