ISLAMABAD: The Accountability Court Monday asked the National Accountability Bureau's investigation officer (IO) to submit a report regarding attachment of properties of four accused in a case regarding misappropriation in the government subsidy awarded for sugarcane growers, till September 28.

Accountability Court judge Asghar Ali, while hearing the case, asked the IO to submit its report regarding attachment of properties of four accused including Ali Kamal Majeed, Nimr Majeed, Manahil Majeed, and Saima Majeed, who had already been declared proclaimed offender over their failure to join the trial in the case till the next hearing to be held on September 28.

The other accused in the case include Abdul Ghani Majeed, Khawaja Mustafa Zulqarnain, and others.

The NAB has nominated 40 accused in the reference.

The bureau filed the reference against the accused over charges of embezzlement of millions of funds issued by the government of Sindh to sugar mills as a subsidy for onward payment to sugarcane farmers. The Sindh government through provincial cane commissioner paid Rs3.9 billion to various sugar mills for onward payment to genuine sugarcane growers as subsidy on account of supply of sugarcane for the season 2014-2015. An investigation was conducted against eight sugar mills owned by the Omni Group of Anwar Majeed, and his four sons, Abdul Ghani Majeed, Nimr Majeed, Mustafa Zulqarnain Majeed, and Ali Kamal Majeed. The investigation revealed that out of Rs728.18m subsidy granted to eight sugar mills of Omni Group, an amount of Rs346 million had been allegedly misappropriated in connivance with senior employees by showing their low-paid staff as sugarcane growers.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021