July 05, 2008	Saturday	Rajab 1, 1429

KARACHI, July 4: An accountability court on Friday acquitted the Sindh Minister for Local Bodies Agha Siraj Durrani from a NAB reference under the National Reconciliation Ordinance 2007.

Riaz Rajput, the judge of accountability court-IV, announced the verdict after recording arguments on an application moved by the minister through his counsel under Section VII of the NRO 2007, maintaining that the reference should be withdrawn and the proceedings terminated against him since he had been implicated in the false and fabricated case on political grounds.

The reference (08/2002), filed by the National Accountability Bureau, Sindh, alleged that Siraj Durrani, while holding the office of Sindh education minister during 1994-95, had committed financial irregularities in handling furniture contracts of the Swedish Technical Institute in collaboration with its then director Rashid Ahmed Khan, that caused heavy losses to the national exchequer. The inquiry was initiated in July 1999.

The court also acquitted Rashid Ahmed Khan under the NRO.

Durrani’s counsel in the application said that the applicant has been implicated in the reference due to a political vendetta .