Thatta water supply case: AC reserves judgement over accused’s acquittal plea

ISLAMABAD: The Accountability Court hearing Thatta water supply case against former president Asif Ali Zardari and others on Thursday reserved its judgment over the acquittal application filed by an accused under the National Accountability (second amendment) Ordinance 2021.

The Accountability Court-II judge, Muhammad Azam Khan, while hearing the case regarding award of an illegal contract of Thatta water supply to Harish against former president Zardari and others reserved its judgment on the acquittal application of co-accused Manahil Majeed after her counsel Arshad Tabraiz completed his arguments.

The court adjourned the hearing of the case till May 14. Usman Masood, prosecutor National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Furqan Hameed, investigation officer (IO) NAB, Barrister Sheraz Rajper, associate of Farooq H Naek, counsel for Zardari, and the defence counsel, Arshad Tabraiz, appeared before the court.

At the start of the hearing, Zardari’s counsel’s associate filed an application seeking one-day exemption for his client to appear before it, which the court approved.

The anti-graft body nominated Zardari and 13 other suspects in the supplementary filed in connection with Thatta water supply scam. The bureau had not nominated Zardari in the interim reference and Ashfaq Leghari and In-charge Naudero House Nadeem Bhutto in the interim reference.

In the interim reference, the bureau has nominated 13 accused including Ejaz Ahmed Khan, former secretary of Special Initiative Department of Sindh; Hassan Memon, project director/chairman of the procurement committee for the water supply scheme, Thatta, members of the committee namely, Ali Akbar Abro, Aijaz Ahmed Memon, Athar Nawaz Durrani, Abdul Haleem Memon, Mohammad Farrukh Khan, Mohammad Ramzan, Mohammad Siddiq Sulemani, and Zeeshan Hasan Yousaf, a private contractor Harish, CEO Omni Group Khawaja Abdul Ghani Majeed, and Manahil Majeed.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022