KARACHI: An accountability court indicted on Saturday a former provincial secretary of minority affairs, a former director and others in an illegal appointment reference.

The National Accountability Bureau in June last year had arrested the then provincial excise secretary and former minority affairs secretary Badar Jamil Mandhro and former minority affairs director Khadim Hussain Channa, then serving as director at the anti-corruption establishment.

NAB booked them along with over 20 beneficiaries for allegedly taking bribe against the appointments of 26 officers in the minority affairs department in 2012-13.

The accountability court-II judge read out the charges against the accused. However, they pleaded not guilty.

Witness testifies

Another accountability court recorded on Saturday evidence of first prosecution witness in an over Rs460 billion corruption reference.

Former federal minister Dr Asim Hussain along with his accomplices has been accused of misusing his authority for getting plots allotted fraudulently and encroaching upon state land for expansion of Dr Ziauddin Hospital/Trust. Raheel Shahnawaz, a former auditor of the Ziauddin hospital, deposed that according to the audits conducted between 2010 and 2014, the health facility was not a charity hospital, but being used for business purposes.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2016