January 16, 2008	Wednesday	Muharram 06, 1429

Judge Sadiq Hussain Bhatti summoned all the prosecution witnesses to record their statements on the next hearing as the accused pleaded not guilty and opted to contest the case.

Earlier, the case investigation officer submitted a report to the court under Section 87 (proclamation for person absconding) of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The court had already issued warrants under Section 88 (attachment of property of person absconding) of the CrPC against M.B. Abbasi, former chairman of the National Development Financial Corporation, Hasham Ganji and Saleem Dawood, who were declared absconders.

According to the NAB reference (27/2003), the NDFC had approved a financial facility of Rs40 million in favour of M/S West Pakistan Tanks Terminal (Pvt) Ltd as a trade finance facility in 1994.

Subsequently, the facility was converted into working capital funds for the purchase of molasses to be exported abroad. It was disbursed on January 24, 1995.

M.B. Abbasi, the former NDFC chairman, in league with sponsors namely Sadruddin Ganji, his son Hasham Sadruddin Ganji, Dawood and Sajid Ali of M/S West Pakistan Tanks Terminal (Pvt) Ltd committed numerous procedural and processing irregularities while granting the aforesaid financial facilities.

The National Development Financial Corporation (NDFC) itself made enquiries into the matter with the consultation of M/S Raza Kazim Associates and requested for legal action as the loan amount was still outstanding.

An FIR (40/1997) was registered against the accused on July 5, 1997.

Land scam

Judge Syed Aley Maqbool Rizvi of the Accountability Court-I, meanwhile, reissued the non-bailable arrest warrants for 10 accused in a land scam reference and directed the NAB to arrest the accused and produce them in court on the next hearing.

The bureau had earlier arrested DIG Altaf Hussain Bhatti on Dec 4, 2007, for misusing his authority to acquire more than 500 acres of government land in Thatta district.

A reference (No 59/2007) was filed against him by the NAB accusing the DIG of illegally transferring pieces of land in fake names and later on getting them allotted to himself, his family members and other relatives. The court sent him to jail on Dec 5 and issued non-bailable warrants for the 10 accused.

However, the 10 accused could not be arrested and produced in court on Tuesday.

The court reissued the warrants and directed the bureau to produce them before the single bench on January 25.