14 August 2004	Saturday	27 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

KARACHI, Aug 13: Judge Qaiser Iqbal of the Accountability Court No 1 reserved on Friday order on an acquittal application of a former chief of Habib Bank, charged with corruption and misappropriation of funds in the Yellow Cab Scheme.

The judge fixed Aug 21 for the pronouncement of order on the application filed for the acquittal of Younus Dalia and the co-accused after hearing the arguments from the special public prosecutor, Syed Nadeem Hussain Shah.

Mr Dalia and three other senior officials of the bank - Sabir Hussain, Pir Dildar Hussain Sarhandi and Anwar Haider Qureshi - were booked for embezzling over Rs236 million in 1996. They were represented by Raja Qureshi and Shaukat Zubedi.

The defence counsel had already put forward their arguments in the previous hearing. It was alleged that a vigilance cell of the bank impounded over 57 vehicles, given under a scheme of then prime minister Nawaz Sharif, after the owners defaulted on the payment of instalments.

Later, the accused allegedly released the impounded vehicles on receiving the due payments by the owners. They allegedly did not deposit the money in the bank. The case was initially sent to the special court for banking offences. However, it was later transferred to the AC.

All the accused are on bail. Opposing the acquittal pleas of the accused, the special public prosecutor contended that the accused played an active role in the embezzlement of funds and it was pre-mature to acquit the accused as the prosecution has yet to examine its witnesses against him.