Dr Asim’s remand extended till Feb 9

NAB prosecutor says Dr Asim caused loss of Rs450 bn

KARACHI: Dr Asim Hussain in his capacity as minister for petroleum and national resources caused loss of billions of rupees to national exchequer by artificially creating gas shortage and suspending gas supply to fertilizer industry and as a result the government had import millions of dollars fertilizer to cater to agriculture sector. 

The overall loss was amounted to Rs450 billion while more clues about corruption would be brought forward shortly as the investigation team is being engaged in this corruption case. 

The Accountability Court (AC) for the fourth time on Wednesday extended the physical remand of Dr Asim Hussain, in favour of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) till February 9.  Upon expiry of the physical remand, the NAB Investigation Officer (IO) told the court that during the interrogation four witnesses had recorded their statements, and it needed further interrogation. 

The IO prayed to the court to grant further physical remand of Dr Asim Hussain.  The attorneys for Dr Asim Hussain strongly opposed the IO plea, but the court granted further remand till February 9.

Dr Asim Hussain has been admitted to Jinnah Hospital, and the court ordered not to allow any irrelevant person to meet Dr Asim Hussain. It declared that only NAB personnel would be deputed for the security of Dr Asim Hussain at the hospital. 

The court also disallowed the plea for an attendant from the family of Dr Asim Hussain to stay with him.  It said that only NAB personnel (in uniform) would stay there.  An attorney for Dr Asim Hussain complained that the windows of the room provided to Dr Asim Hussain at Jinnah Hospital were replaced with blocks and it looked like a bunker.

The NAB prosecutor argued that it was a high-profile case, and security arrangements for the safety of Dr Asim Hussain were inevitable. The court ordered NAB to appoint only security personnel for Dr Asim Hussain and that these personnel should be in their uniforms.

During the proceeding, the IO presented a report on the progress made so far. The report said that statements of four more witnesses have been recorded. It may be mentioned here that Dr Asim Hussain is also being tried before an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC-II) in a case pertaining to charges of provision of shelter and treatment to some criminals on the behest of some political leaders.

During the hearing, the NAB prosecutor said that the accused had created an artificial gas crisis, which affected the fertilizer sector and the market price of locally produced fertilizer had suddenly jumped up from Rs850 a bag to Rs1,530 a sack. In addition, the artificial gas crisis created a shortfall in fertilizer production and Pakistan was constrained to place orders for import of fertilizer in huge quantity to meet the need of fertilizer of the local growers. The overall situation caused the exchequer to bear a loss of Rs450 billion. 

The NAB court enquired the NAB prosecutor to explain as when the investigation of this case would complete. On which the prosecutor responded that the investigation team was confident to obtain more evidence to prove the guilt of the accused and thus the investigation would shortly be completed. 

The defending lawyers of the accused while giving the arguments told the NAB court that none of the law enforcing authority had yet proved any crime of the accused in past six months.