KARACHI, Sept 11: The Accountability Court on Tuesday admitted a reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against its own former assistant director Fazle Hadi for his alleged involvement in corruption.
The NAB had arrested the accused while receiving a handsome amount as a bribe on June 18 2007 from a complainant for disposing of the latter’s case and getting a deal for Rs1 million accepted.
The complainant brought it to the notice of the director general of NAB, Sindh, after which the accused officer was arrested in presence of a magistrate, Asim Khan Lodhi.
Ex-EOBI chief’s case
The Accountability Court-II adjourned the hearing of NAB Reference No. 20/2002 against an accused, Hamayooun Sadiq, till Sept 24. One prosecution witness was present during the hearing.
According to the reference, Shaikh Barkatullah, a former chairman of the Employees’ Old-age Benefits Institution (EOBI) in connivance with Mohammad Tahir Siddiqi, General Manager (Finance) of the Prudential Commercial Bank, and other co-accused had indulged in corruption and corrupt practices, as well as other scheduled offences, and deprived the institution of Rs1,040 million.
Their acts also deprived people of benefits amounting to more than one billion rupees and caused a loss of over Rs16.88 million to the EOBI.
The case was revived in June 2005.
Accumulation of illegal assets
The Accountability Court-IV adjourned the hearing of the NAB reference No. 7/2007 against Hadi Bux Siyal, a Statistical Assistant in the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra), till Sept 17, 2007.
The reference was filed on March 1, 2007 and the accused was charged with corruption and corrupt practices to accumulate illegal assets.
The accused had joined the service in 1984 and during his service from 1985 to 2005, he received an amount of Rs936,502 on account of salary and during the service he opened five bank accounts in his name.
The major credit entries in these accounts aggregated to over Rs4,6.29 million. A benefit of about Rs1.67 million was given to the accused on account of salary and inter-bank transactions.
The accused accumulated assets worth over Rs463.70 million in his name beyond his known sources of income.
Bank employee’s case
The Accountability Court-I adjourned the hearing of reference No 10/2007 filed by National Accountability Bureau on March 14, 2007 against Mohammad Nawaz Ansari, an employee of the Zarai Taraqiati Bank, and others till Oct 8, 2007 for accumulating assets beyond his known sources of income.
The employee was accused of owning, possessing or having acquired assets worth more than Rs5 million. It was alleged that the accused in connivance with three other accused, maintained these accounts to conceal his ill-gotten wealth.
The other three accused are also facing charges for assisting and aiding him in the accumulation of illegal assets.
The accused told the court that they had filed a constitutional petition in the Sindh High Court for the transfer of their case from Karachi to Hyderabad.
Ex-shipping master held
The National Accountability Bureau, Sindh, on Tuesday arrested a former shipping master, Ports and Shipping, Captain (r) Faisal Farooqui, for his alleged involvement in corruption and accumulation of illegal assets.
He was produced before the Accountability Court which sent him to jail till Sept 17 on judicial remand.
Mr Farooqui is accused of misappropriating and accumulating illegal assets worth Rs70.53 million. The NAB filed a reference against him on Aug 27, 2007.
On Sept 5, 2007, the court issued non-bailable warrants for his arrest in the case.
