Lok Virsa corruption case: AC returns reference against PPP senator to NAB

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader and Senator, Rubina Khalid, on Wednesday obtained relief from the Accountability Court after the court sent Lok Virsa corruption reference against her and others back to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in view of the amendments made by the coalition government to the NAB law.

She is the third PPP leader who got relief from the court due to the amendments to NAB laws introduced by the present government.

The Accountability Court has already sent the RPP cases against PPP leader Raja Perviaz Ashraf and a corruption case against Saleem Mandviwalla back to the NAB.

The Accountability Court-I judge, Muhammad Bashir, while hearing the petition filed by Rubina Khalid and others, in which they had challenged the territorial jurisdiction of the court under the National Accountability (Second Amendment) Act, 2022, declared that the instant references did not fall under the ambit of the court after the recent amendments in the NAB laws.

The court returned the files of the references to the NAB for placing the matter before appropriate forums.

The anti-graft body on July 1, 2019, had filed a corruption reference against Rubina Khalid, who is also the former Chief Executive Director of M/s Cosmos Production (Pvt) Ltd.

The accused also included former Executive Director Lok Virsa Mazharul Islam and incumbent Chief Executive Director of M/s Cosmos Production (Pvt) Ltd in Self-Generated Fund (SGF) of Lok Virsa, Dr Tabinda Zafar.

The bureau had adopted the stance that the accused committed embezzlement in the Lok Virsa fund and incurred a loss of Rs30.13 million to the national exchequer. The NAB had initiated an investigation against the accused in November 2018.

According to the bureau, the evidence collected during the investigation established that the accused committed the “offence of corruption and corrupt practices as defined under Section 9 (a), (VI) and (XII) punishable u/s 10 of [National Accountability Ordinance (NAO)] 1999.”

During the investigation, it was established that Mazhar misused his authority and illegally extended the contracts in favour of Cosmos Production (Pvt) Ltd in connivance with the PPP senator and Dr Zafar.

As per the NAB, accused Mazhar and Zafar gained illegal benefits by getting the extension of the agreement without calling the fresh tenders/any competition and also failed to deposit the 50 percent profit earned by them; which resulted in the loss to the national exchequer amounting to Rs 30.13 million.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022