ISLAMABAD: The Accountability Court, on Monday adjourned Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) case against former BISP chairperson and Pakistan People’s Party leader Farzana Raja and others due to absence of the defence counsel.
Accountability Court-III judge, Syed Asghar Ali, while hearing the case against Farzana Raja and others adjourned the hearing without any proceedings due to unavailability of the defence counsel till April 18.
NAB prosecutor, Waseem Javed, appeared before the court.
The court on June 7, declared former BISP chief Farzana Raja as a proclaimed offender due to her continuous absence from the court hearings.
The court also separated her case from the rest of the under-trial accused.
The NAB Chairman, former Justice Javed Iqbal, approved the reference against the PPP leader on December 3, 2019.
The reference comprised 32 volumes and 19 persons have been nominated in the case.
The bureau approved the reference for granting advertisement campaign contract to four advertising agencies contrary to the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules, which allegedly inflicted Rs1.46 billion losses to the national exchequer.
According to the reference, a complaint had been received in the NAB alleging that the BISP awarded contracts to advertising agencies in 2009-10 and 2010-11 in violation of the PPRA rules, 2004.
It was further alleged in the complaint that Rs1.657 billion was given to an advertising agency, M/s Midas (Pvt) Limited.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022