ISLAMABAD: The Accountability Court on Monday adjourned the illegal allotment of Railways land reference against Lt Gen Javed Ashraf Qazi (retired) and others as the judge was on leave.

Accountability Court-III judge, Syed Asgher Ali, was supposed to hear arguments of the defence counsel over the acquittal pleas filed by accused former Chairman Pakistan Railways and former minister for railways and communication Qazi, former senior officials of Pakistan Railways, including former secretary Lt Gen Saeeduz Zaman (retd) and others in Railways Golf Club corruption reference.

The accused filed acquittal applications under the National Accountability (second amendment) Ordinance 2021. The court adjourned the hearing of the case till May 25 as the judge was on leave.

The other accused include Major Gen Hamid Hassan Butt (retired), former General Manager (GM), Pakistan Railways, Iqbal Samad Khan, former GM PR Khursheed Ahmed Khan, former member PR Brig retired Akhtar Ali Baig, former director Abdul Ghaffar, former superintendent Muhammad Ramzan Shaikh, Director Husnain Construction Company, Pervaiz Latif Qureshi, Chief Executive Unicon Consulting Services, Datu Muhammad Bin Kasa Bin Adda Aziz.

The Executive Board Meeting (EBM) of the NAB had approved a reference against the accused on February 18, 2018.

The accused have challenged the jurisdiction of the accountability court on the grounds that the recently-promulgated presidential ordinance has excluded them from the ambit of the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO).

After the promulgation of the National Accountability Second Amendment Ordinance, 2021, the jurisdiction of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has been curtailed.

Section 4 of the ordinance has curtailed the jurisdiction of the accountability court as sub-section 2-C excludes, “any person or entity who, or transaction in relation thereto, which are not directly or indirectly connected with the holder of public office”.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022