Kidney Hills case: AC allows defence counsel to present arguments again on acquittal pleas

ISLAMABAD: An Accountability Court on Tuesday while hearing Kidney Hills corruption case against Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Saleem Mandviwalla and others approved the defence counsel’s request to allow them to conduct again arguments on the acquittal applications of their clients following the enactment of the National Accountability (Amendment) Act, 2022.

The Accountability Court-I judge, Muhammad Bashir, while hearing Kidney Hills corruption reference regarding illegal allotment plots of Overseas Cooperative Housing Society Limited (OCHSL) against Mandviwalla and others, allowed the defence counsel to conduct again arguments on applications filed by their clients under Section 265-K, Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) for their acquittal in the NAB reference and adjourned the case till June 28.

Sohail Arif, prosecutor National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Barrister Qasim Nawaz Abbasi, counsel for accused Aijaz Haroon, Nadeem Hakeem Mandviwala, accused Abdul Qadir Shiwani, accused Tariq Mahmood, accused Abdul Qayyum, Arshad Tabraiz, counsel for accused Khawaja Abdul Ghani Majeed and advocate Captain Mohsin Kamal (retired), counsel for accused Saleem Mandviwalla along with pleader, Nouman advocate Iqbal appeared before the court.

At the start of the hearing, all the defense counsels requested to allow them to conduct arguments again on the applications filed by their clients under 265-K after the enactment of the NAB’s latest act which was accepted, and the court adjourned the case till June 28.

The anti-graft body had filed the reference against Mandviwalla and others on January 13 before the Accountability Court.

The reference was approved by the NAB’s executive board meeting (EBM) on December 29, 2021, last year which was presided over by the Chairman NAB former Justice Javed Iqbal.

The other accused included Nadeem Hakeem Mandviwala, Muhammad Ajaz Haroon, former secretary Overseas Cooperative Housing Society, Karachi, and former chairman Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), Abdul Qadir Shiwani, private person, Tariq Mehmood, private person, Abdul Qayyum, private person, and Khawaja Abdul Ghani Majeed.

According to the NAB, the accused on their involvement in the illegal allotment of plots in the OCHSL, Karachi and payment of those plots through fake bank accounts, incurred huge losses to the national exchequer.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022