September 14, 2007	Friday	Ramazan 1, 1428

RAWALPINDI, Sept 13: An accountability court here on Thursday put off hearing in corruption cases against Sharif brothers till October 3 without any legal proceedings as the prosecution lawyers sought adjournment.

Accountability Court 4 Judge Chaudhry Khalid Mehmood conceding to the request of the senior prosecution general (SPG) Arif Ali Zafar Chohan and deputy prosecution general (DPG) Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta representing National Accountability Bureau (NAB) postponed the hearing in the three corruption references.

The prosecution lawyers seemed least interested in the cases after the “forcible deportation” of former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif on September 10.

In the last two hearings the judge had not issued arrest warrants of Sharif bothers in the three cases — Hudabia Paper Mills, Ittifaq Foundry and Raiwind Assets. The arrest warrants shown to the former prime minister on his arrival at Islamabad Airport on September 10 were issued by chairman NAB.

The hearing in the cases were adjourned sine die on April 12, 2001 after Nawaz Sharif and his family went to Saudi Arabia under a deal with the government of General Pervez Musharraf. The NAB request for the reopening of these cases was admitted by the court on August 17.

Meanwhile, defence lawyer in a corruption case against former registrar of the Supreme Court cross-examined a prosecution witness for more than two hours before the judge adjourned the hearing till September 20.

Former registrar Muhammad Amin Farooqi has allegedly misappropriated about Rs10.588 million government money.

The NAB also alleged that the registrar had bought two houses in a posh area of Islamabad and did not declare them in his assets. Along with Mr Farooqi two other persons Javaid Iqbal Qureshi ex-president and chief executive officer of Islamic International Bank (IIB) and Mohammad Nadeem Anwar ex-director of IIB are also accused for releasing money to him with out any proper record.