KARACHI, Feb 9: The judge of the accountability court-II, Sadiq Hussain Bhatti, on Saturday, adjourned the hearing of a reference against the former chief of the National Development Finance Corporation (NDFC) and others till Feb 25.The complainant, Manzoorul Haq, appeared in court to testify in the case. The defence counsel also cross-examined him. A former employee of the NDFC, Zahid Ilyas Abbasi, has already recorded his statement as prosecution witness.

Earlier, the court had indicted two co-accused of the case namely Sardruddin Ganji and Sajid Ahmed on corruption charges. They pleaded not guilty and opted to contest the case.

The court had also issued warrants under Section 88 (attachment of property of person absconding) of the Criminal Procedure Code against the former chairman of the NDFC, M. B. Abbasi, Hasham Ganji and Saleem Dawood, who were declared absconders from court.

The investigation officer had submitted a report to the court under Section 87 (proclamation for person absconding) of the Criminal Procedure Code regarding the arrest of absconders.

According to the reference (27/2003) filed by the National Accountability Bureau, Sindh, 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.

The accused, M. B. Abbasi, the then NDFC chairman, in league with the sponsors namely Sadaruddin Ganji, his son Hasham Sarduddin Ganji, Dawood and Sajid Ali of M/S West Pakistan Tanks Terminal committed numerous procedural and processing irregularities, while granting the aforesaid financial facilities. The NDFC itself made enquiries into the matter with the consultation of M/S Raza Kazim Associates. However, the NDFC had requested for legal action since the loan amount was still outstanding, while an FIR (40/1997) was registered against the accused in July 1997.