KARACHI: An accountability court acquitted on Monday former chairman of the National Insurance Company Limited and five other officials in a land scam case.

The then chairman of NICL Ayaz Khan Niazi, directors Syed Hur Riahi Gardezi, Syed Naveed Hassan Zaidi, Amin Qasim Dada, Mohammad Zahoor and general manager (real estate) Zahid Hussain were charged with committing financial embezzlement in the purchase of a piece of land in Dubai in 2009 in violation of procurement rules.

The judge of accountability court-III, Munawar Sultana, exonerated the accused since the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had failed to find any evidence against them during reinvestigation of the case.

Initially, the cases about NICL land scams were being tried by an anti-corruption court but were later transferred to the accountability court earlier this year as the NAB moved an application to the judge of anti-corruption court and submitted that since the apex court transferred the investigation of the cases in question from FIA to NAB, the cases might be sent to an accountability court.

After having reinvestigated the present case, the NAB submitted a report to the court which stated that no irregularity had been found in the purchase of land in Dubai.

An identical case against the then federal minister for commence and senior leader of Pakistan People Party, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, and others was also pending trial in the accountability court.

The PPP leader along with former secretary of ministry of commerce Suleman Ghani, Ayaz Khan Niazi and a number of other senior officials of the NICL and some private persons has been charged with causing huge financial losses to national exchequer by purchasing land in Korangi for NICL at exorbitant price in August 2009.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2014