KARACHI: An anti-corruption court issued on Friday arrest warrants for former prime minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and former commerce minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim in three more cases pertaining to the multi-billion trade subsidy scam.

On Thursday the same court had issued the warrants for nine people, including Mr Gilani and Mr Fahim, in another case relating to the same scam.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) submitted in the court final investigation reports in three cases and named the two PPP leaders and Mohammad Zubair, a former deputy secretary at the PM secretariat, as absconding accused.

The judge of Special Federal Anti-Corruption Court-I, Mohammad Azeem, accepted the final chargesheets for hearing and issued non-bailable warrants with directives to the FIA to arrest the accused and produce them before the court on June 17.

The FIA has not attached the lists of witnesses with the chargesheets and the court asked the investigating agency to submit the lists if there were new witnesses.

The two PPP leaders along with some former and serving officials of the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) and some other people have been booked for their alleged involvement in approving and disbursing fraudulent trade subsidies of billions of rupees to several fake companies through fictitious claims and backdated cheques.

A court official said around 70 cases pertaining to the subsidy scam against the former chairman, former chief executive and other senior officials of the TDAP and other people were pending before the court. He said the FIA was likely to file final chargesheets in seven more cases on Monday.

Published in Dawn, May 31th, 2014