The country's top anti-graft body on Friday decided to file a corruption reference and authorized an investigation for misappropriation of fund against Dr Asim Hussain, former Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources and a close aide of former President Asif Ali Zardari.
An official said that National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in its Executive Board Meeting (EBM) meeting, which was presided over by NAB chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, decided to file a corruption reference and launch an inquiry against Dr Asim.
He said that the EBM has given a go-ahead to concerned officials to also file a corruption reference against others including Director Land KDA Syed Athar Hussain and Administrator Ziauddin Medical Center Dubai Abdul Hameed in the case in which the accused persons were charged with fraudulent land allotments and illegal annexation of land, unfair natural gas distribution quotas and money laundering which caused a huge loss to the national exchequer.
The official said that Dr Asim, who is in the NAB custody since December 11,2015 is facing an inquiry into charges of misuse of authority in the allotment of plots and encroachment of state land for Dr Ziauddin Hospital, kickbacks and commission through a fertilizer cartel for illegal curtailment, fraud with the public in the name of a charity hospital and money-laundering.
He said the proceeds of these illegal activities were allegedly utilized for money laundering, causing a huge loss to the national exchequer.
The official said the bureau also authorized investigation against Dr Asim Hussain and former MDs of Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGCL) including Azeem Iqbal Siddiqui, Zuhair Ahmed Siddiqui, Shoaib Warsi and Khalid Rehman.
He said the accused persons have allegedly misappropriated funds of SSGCL and OGDCL which caused losses of Rs 10 billion to the national exchequer by providing illegal benefits to Jamshoro Joint Venture Ltd (JJVL) from 2011 onwards. Gas worth billions of rupees was illegally awarded to the same company and others from various gas fields.
According to a statement issued by the NAB spokesman, the EBM has authorized total of three inquiries. First inquiry was authorized on the complaint of Australian High Commission, Islamabad, against Nazir Abbas of Al-Abbas International Educational Consultants and others. In this case, the accused persons were accused of cheating and defrauding students at large by collecting approximately Rs 760/- million for processing of Australian Visas.
Another inquiry was authorized against Ashfaq Jumani of National Highway Authority (NHA), M/S Siraj (Pvt) Ltd and others in which the accused persons were accused of misusing authority by illegal award of contract to M/s Siraj (Pvt) Limited thus causing a loss of Rs 92,831,207 to the national exchequer.
The third inquiry was authorized against Sardar Asif Nakai, MPA, Khan Arshad Khan former-President Housing Society, Dr Muhammad Ilyas Qamar, Talib Hussain Talib, Marketing Manager and others of Al-Madina Garden Housing Society, Pattoki, Kasur. In this case, the accused persons were alleged for misappropriation and criminal breach of trust in respect of amount recovered as consideration of plots and development works thereof by omitting the development works in the society and non-mutation of land in the name of purchasers.
According to the spokesman, the EBM re-authorized investigation against Dr Rasool Bux Solangi, former Deputy District Officer (Revenue) Karachi, Abdul Aziz Qazi, Ex-Tapedar Gulshan-e-Iqbal Town Karachi, Abdul Majeed and former Justice Zahid K. Alvi. In this case, the accused persons were allegedly found involved in misuse of authority/Corruption and Corrupt Practices thus causing a loss of approximately Rs 1.26 billion to the national exchequer. The EBM also re-authorized an inquiry against Officers/ Officials of Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA), Karachi Development Authority (KDA) and others. In this case, the accused persons were accused of misusing authority and illegal conversion/allotment of Land to resourceful persons thus causing a huge loss to the national exchequer.
Comments
Comments are closed.