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LAHORE, Nov 22: Accountability court judge Rana Zahid Mehmood on Saturday recorded the statements of two prosecution witnesses in a wilful default reference against Interior Minister Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat and nine others before adjourning the proceedings until Dec 8.
The witnesses included Personal Assistant to Chief Manager Askari Commercial Bank A.R. Shehzad and Muhammad Kamal. The defence counsel would continue cross-examination of their statements on the next date of hearing.
Mr Hayat and his nine relatives are facing charges of wilfully defaulting on a Rs241.07 million loan obtained in the name of Shah Jewna Textile Mills from the United Bank Limited, Faisalabad, in 1991.
The court has permanently exempted Mr Hayat from personal appearance in the court.
CASE AGAINST PHE OFFICIALS: An accountability court issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of Sub-Engineers Bashir Ahmad Khosa and Gulzar Ahmad of the Bahawalpur Public Health Engineering Department and a contractor, Muhammad Islam. The court directed the NAB authorities to produce the accused on Dec 12.
The other accused, XEN Zafar Iqbal Gurmani and SDOs Tariq Faheem and Mirza Abdullah, were present in the court in custody.
The NAB had filed a reference against them for inflicting a loss of Rs2.3 million on the national exchequer. The NAB alleged that the accused had misappropriated Rs1.7 million in a sewerage contract for urban Dera Ghazi Khan. The amount has piled up to Rs2.3 million because of markup.
REFERENCE AGAINST VARIO: An accountability court recorded the statements of two more prosecution witnesses in a reference against former MNA Akhtar Vario pertaining to acquisition of illegal assets of more than Rs65 million before adjourning the proceedings until Dec 6.
The witnesses, Muzamil Khan and Razaq Ahmad, recorded their statements before the court and were cross-examined by the defence counsel.
The court had awarded three years of rigorous imprisonment to Mr Vario in absentia for absconding from the operation of law.
The NAB alleged that Mr Vario had acquired illegal assets in his own name and in the names of his dependents while holding a public office, which were disproportionate to his known sources of income.
SMUGGLERS CONVICTED: Anti-Narcotics Court Special Judge Pervaiz Ali Chawla convicted two persons hailing from Nigeria and Tanzania on charges of smuggling narcotics.
The court awarded 10 years of rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs200,000 to Nigerian Joshio and three years of rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs50,000 to Tanzanian Frank Ellas.
The Anti-Narcotics Force had arrested the accused from the Lahore railway station and recovered 3.5kg of heroin from the possession of Joshio and 500g of heroin from Frank Ellas on Dec 29.—PPI
