AC adjourns hearing of Lok Virsa scam till March 17

The Accountability Court on Monday adjourned hearing of reference regarding alleged corruption in self generated fund (SGF) of Lok Virsa causing loss of Rs30.13 million to the national exchequer against Senator Rubina Khalid belonging to the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and others, due to non-availability of witnesses till March 17.

The Accountability Court judge, Muhammad Bashir, re-listed the case till March 17 due to absence of witnesses of the case. The accused, Senator Rubina Khalid, Dr Tabinda Zafar, and Mazharul Islam appeared before the court.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutor, Sohail Arif, and Investigation Officer (IO) Afshan Basharat appeared before the court. The Accountability Court had indicted including Rubina, former chief executive director of M/s Cosmos Production (Private) Limited, Mazharul Islam, former executive director Lok Virsa Dr Tabinda Zafar, chief executive director of M/s Cosmos Production (Pvt.) Ltd, in SGF of Lok Virsa, and Muhammad Shafi, on August 2, 2019.

The NAB on July 1 filed a corruption reference against Senator Rubina. The NAB adopted the stance in the reference that the accused committed embezzlement in the Lok Virsa funds, which incurred loss of Rs30.13 million to the national exchequer. The decision to file the reference against Senator Rubina and others was taken at a meeting presided over by the NAB chairman and former justice, Javed Iqbal. The NAB initiated investigation against the accused in November 2018.

According to the bureau, the evidence collected during the investigation established that the accused committed "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 Mazharul Islam misused his authority and illegally extended contracts in favor of Cosmos Production (Pvt.) Limited in connivance with Senator Rubina and Zafar. According to the NAB, Mazhar and Zafar gained illegal benefits through the extension of agreement without calling fresh tenders, and also failed to deposit 50 percent profit earned by them; which resulted in loss of Rs30.13 million to the national exchequer.