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LAHORE, July 22: An accountability court on Monday summoned the prosecution witnesses for Aug 20 in a reference against Punjab co-operatives secretary Javed Iqbal Bukhari and defunct Services Co-operative Credit Corporation general manager Ejaz Ahmad Awan after the prosecution furnished a list of prosecution witnesses.
Mr Bukhari on the last hearing had pleaded guilty to the charges and had offered to settle his account with the NAB. The court had directed him to move a formal application in this regard.
However, the NAB informed the court on Monday that no such application had so far been moved by the accused. It produced a list of witnesses for initiation of trial.
The court observed that the accused could move a formal application under Section 25 of the NAB Ordinance at any time during the trial but further delay in the initiation of the trial would be against the natural justice so the witnesses were being summoned for the next hearing. Co-accused Ejaz Ahmad Awan had been convicted by an accountability court to 14 years RI and Rs5 million fine in a reference pertaining to misappropriation of SCCCL funds. The court has also rejected Mr Bukhari’s application for premature acquittal and amendment to charges on the last hearing after which he had made an offer to pay off the amount.
PLEA REJECTED: An accountability court on Monday rejected the application of three accused in a Emirates Bank reference, challenging their trial under the NAB Ordinance and directed the NAB to furnish a complete reference on July 24.
Accused Agha Matloob, Saleem Shehzad and Shahiddudin Sahaf had pleaded the court to transfer the reference back to the banking court trying it previously. They said the NAB had no legal power to get any case transferred to an accountability court from any court. The accused had further pleaded that charges levied against them were not covered by the NAB Ordinance so the reference was not triable before an accountability court.
The court while rejecting the application observed that there was no provision in the NAB Ordinance under which a case trans-ferred to an accountability court from an anti-corruption court or banking court could be transferred back to the previous one. It was further observed that charges levied against the accused were fully covered by the NAB Ordinance and trial was not beyond the jurisdiction of the court.
The court further instructed the NAB to file a reference on the next hearing.
Agha Matloob, Shehzad Saleem and Shahiddudin Sahaf had been accused of misappropriating Rs280 million out of Emirates Bank, Kashmir Road Branch, Lahore. —Reporter
