07 March 2004	Sunday	15 Muharram 1425

LAHORE, March 6: Accountability judge Rana Zahid Mehmood on Saturday turned down a plea of the defence counsel against re-examination of a prosecution witness in a wilful default reference against Interior Minister Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat and nine others.

The defence counsel had raised the objection that Muhammad Kamal had already recorded his statement before the court and could not be re-examined. However, the court dismissed his plea and adjourned the proceedings until March 20.

Mr Hayat and his nine relatives are facing charges of wilfully defaulting on a Rs241.07 million loan acquired from a United Bank Limited branch in Faisalabad in 1991.

Mr Hayat has been exempted from personal appearance in court.

BoP scam: An accountability court on Saturday sent Munqasim Rahat, a co-accused in the Bank of Punjab scam, on a 14-day physical remand with a direction to the NAB that he should be produced in court on March 19.

The NAB had arrested the accused on Friday from the jail on the orders of its chairman. The bureau has already arrested four accused - including BoP former vice-president Chaudhry Muhammad Younis, ex-GM (finance) Masood Ahmad Sheikh, ex-group executive administration Dr Asif Hafeez Sheikh and SHB director Inbisatul Hassan.

The bank officers allegedly sent Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited's 2,785,074 shares worth Rs68 million of the BoP to M/s Sakhawat Husain Bukhari (Pvt.) Ltd along with blank verified transfer deeds.

In this way, they aided the SHB directors to misappropriate the bank shares.

ex-MNA: An accountability court on Saturday recorded the statements of two more witnesses in a reference against former MNA Akhtar Vario and adjourned the proceedings for March 16.

Akhtar Vario is facing the charges of amassing assets worth more than Rs65 million while holding a public office.-PPI