Illegal appointments case: Nisar Morai, three others sentenced to seven-year jail

KARACHI: An accountability court on Saturday sentenced Pakistan Peoples Party leader and former Fishermen’s Cooperative Society (FCS) chairman Dr Nisar Ahmed Jan Memon, alias Nisar Morai, and three others to seven years in jail in a case pertaining to illegal appointments in the FCS.

The accountability court – I judge convicted the former FCS chairman along with former vice chairman Sultan Qamar Siddiqui, former contractor Imran Afzal and former audit manager Shaukat Hussain. Pronouncing the verdict, the judge also imposed a fine of Rs1 million on each of the convicts.

The court had reserved the decision on a previous hearing after concluding the trial spanning over three years, in which 32 prosecution witnesses were heard.

The convicts along with 12 others, including the incumbent and former FCS officials as well as contractors, were indicted in May 2018 for misuse of authority, embezzlement of funds, illegal appointments and awarding fake contracts during 2014-15.

The offence could not be proved on the rest of the accused and they were acquitted by the court.

According to the National Accountability Bureau, the accused caused a loss of Rs343 million to the national exchequer by inducting their relatives and others in the FCS, violating the recruitment rules.

The anti-graft watchdog said Memon joined the FCS as a director in 2013 and within a year, he rose to become its chairman while he was already holding a public office as a medical officer in the Sindh health department from where he continued to draw a salary till 2015.

NAB added that Memon allegedly made 343 illegal appointments in the FCS against the due process and misappropriated funds. Siddiqui was also accused of getting his father-in-law, brother-in-law and other relatives appointed in the society.

Both Siddiqui and Memon were picked up by the Rangers in 2015 and 2016 respectively after which they were detained for 90 days under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Siddiqui was also charged with facilitating the attack on the Ismaili community in Safoora Goth in which 46 people were killed. Later, a military court acquitted him in the case. Memon was also charged with the 1998 murder of the chairman of the Pakistan Steel Mills, Sajjad Hussain. He was later granted bail and the case is still pending before a sessions court.