ISLAMABAD: Senate Deputy Chairman Saleem Mandviwalla on Thursday expressed his optimism about victory of joint opposition candidate, Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, from Islamabad. Talking to media after appearing before the Accountability Court in illegal allotment of plots of Overseas Cooperative Housing Society Limited (OCHSL) (Kidney Hill) case against him, his brother and others, said that anything can happen in the Senate polls as it is all about number game.
He said that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has not raised any objection against the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM)’s candidate, Gilani.
The PDM candidate, Gilani, will contest the Senate elections and will win it, he said.
Replying to another question, Mandviwala said that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) affected woman Tayyaba has just submitted an application before the Senate, and we will look into it.
We always respect the judiciary and appear before the courts, he said, adding that the reference made against him was based on private transaction.
The NAB cases regarding private transaction will get nothing but only affect people of this country, he said, adding that the NAB should stay away from private business transactions as well as stop harassing people in private cases. Earlier, he and other accused appeared before Accountability Court-I judge Muhammad Bashir in the OCHSL (Kidney Hill) case but the court adjourned it without proceedings till March 5th due to the lawyers protest. The other accused of the case include Mandviwala’s brother Nadeem Hakeem Mandviwala, Muhammad Ajaz Haroon former secretary Overseas Cooperative Housing Society Karachi and former chairman Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), Abdul Qadir Shiwani private persons, Triq Mehmood benamidar of Mandviwalla, Abdul Qayyum private person, and Khawaja Abdul Ghani Majeed of the Omni group.
The NAB had filed the corruption reference against Mandviwalla in an illegal land allotments case on January 13, and the Accountability Court on January 19th summoned him to appear before it.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021