Accountability court records testimony against Sharjeel

An accountability court on Saturday recorded the testimony of a prosecution witness in an over-Rs5-billion graft case against former Sindh information minister Sharjeel Memon and 16 others.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) presented a witness before the accountability court-I judge in the trial against the former provincial minister and his alleged accomplices.

During the hearing, the defence lawyers pleaded to the judge to continue the proceedings on the next date as they were not yet done with cross-examining the testimony. The judge approved the request and directed NAB to present the witness on the next hearing on May 22 as well so that the defence could complete their questioning.

Memon and 16 others — Dr Zulfiqar Ali Shalwani, Mansoor Ahmed Rajput, Anita Baloch, Yusuf Kaburo, Altaf Hussain, Sarang Latif Chandio, Inam Akbar, Riaz Munir, Fazal Mehmood, Muhammad Hanif, Asim, Masood Hashmi, Gulzar Ali, Suleman Mansoor, Umar and Syed Naveed — have been charged with misappropriating advertisement funds to the tune of Rs5.76 billion.

NAB had filed a reference against them in 2016 on the ground of alleged irregularities in awarding contracts to different newspapers and channels for running public interest advertisement and others during the tenure of Memon as the provincial information minister.

NAB accused the former minister, information department officials and some private persons of colluding to cause a loss of Rs5.76 billion to the national exchequer in the name of fake contracts and bogus expenses.