June 20, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-us-Sani 15, 1429

KARACHI, June 19: The Sindh High Court decided on Thursday to hear two National Accountability Bureau appeals against the acquittal of the chairman of the defunct National Development Finance Corporation chairman and ambassador-designate to Iran, Maula Bux Abbasi, under the National Reconciliation Ordinance on June 30.

Advocate Adnan Karim appeared for the respondent and undertook to file his power of attorney. A division bench comprising Justices Rana M. Shamim and Ghulam Dastgir A. Shahani asked the NAB counsel, Mohammad Iqbal Choudhry, to provide him copies of the memorandums of appeals and other necessary documents.

Mr Abbasi was booked for sanctioning loans without sufficient security and without the approval of the NDFC board by the anti-corruption department. He was alleged to have caused a loss of Rs409 million to the NDFC.

The case was later transferred to the Federal Investigation Agency and finally to the Ehtesab Cell in 1997. He was tried by an accountability court, which convicted him in absentia under Section 31-A of the NAB Ordinance in 2004.

After the promulgation of the NRO in October 2007, the accused moved the trial accountability court for termination of all proceedings pending and orders passed against him. He said he was victimized by the second Nawaz Sharif government for being an appointee of the PPP government. Being a victim of political vendetta unleashed by PML (N) senator Saifur Rehman Khan, he was entitled to relief under the reconciliation ordinance.

The accountability court allowed his plea and quashed the two references prosecuted against him by the NAB. The bureau said Section 7 of the NRO, under which Mr Abbasi’s acquittal plea was allowed by the accountability court, specifically excluded bank executives from the purview and moved the SHC against the acquittal. A bench consisting of Justices Mahmood Alam Rizvi and Ghulam Dastgir A. Shahani admitted the first appeal and suspended the operation of the acquittal order. The second appeal was admitted by the bench comprising Justices Rana Shamim and GDA Shahani. Both appeals came up for hearing before the latter bench and were adjourned to June 30.

CDGK restrained

Another bench comprising Justices Mrs Yasmin Abbasy and Bin Yamin Khan issued notices to the city district government in two petitions moved by two contractors through Advocate Masroor Ahmad Alvi and barred it from taking adverse action against the petitioners.

Petitioner Mohammad Iqbal submitted that he won the bid to set up a workshop for repair and maintenance of buses at the inter-city bus terminal at Yousuf Goth, Baldia Town. He was leased out a 690-square-yard plot and spent Rs6 million on setting up the workshop. However, small, mobile workshops soon sprung up around the terminal in violation of his contract with the CDGK. When he complained to the CDGK officials concerned, he was threatened that his lease would be cancelled.

Another petitioner, Mushtaq Ahmad, stated that he won a contract for a washing yard for vehicles at the terminal by submitting the highest bid of Rs1.61 million. The CDGK leased him out a 461-square-yard plot but there no water was available for the yard. When he asked the CDGK officials concerned for water supply arrangements, he too received threats of cancellation of the contract, the petitioner alleged.

Conviction set aside

Justice Mahmood Alam Rizvi, meanwhile, set aside the conviction of Zahid Hussain under the Foreigners Act for illegally entering Pakistan from Bangladesh through the Wagah border. Advocate Mushaffay Ahmad argued on behalf of the appellant that the National Database and Registration Authority has confirmed that his ‘B’ form was available with it. Both his parents were Pakistani nationals holding computerized Nadra identity cards. Besides, he was accused of illegally crossing into Pakistan in 1980 but was charge-sheeted before a juvenile court. The trial court also overlooked the fact that Zahid was born in 1987.

Notice to PG

Adjourning an appeal preferred by two death row prisoners, the bench consisting of Justices Shamim and Shahani issued a notice to Prosecutor-General Shahadat Awan for July 2. Shaukat alias Javed alias Chand and Shanawaz alias Shani have challenged their conviction and sentences awarded by an anti-terrorism court for ambushing a Suparco bus and killing six and injuring five of the organization’s employees at Moach Goth in the Mauripur police station remit.