KARACHI: A sessions court on Thursday remanded former director general of the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) in custody in a money laundering case and allowed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to take him into custody for investigation.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) produced ex-KDA chief Syed Nasir Abbas and Mohammad Hanif again before the court after their physical remand had ended and sought extension of their custody for further questioning.

The defence lawyer, however, opposed further extension of their physical remand.

The additional district and sessions judge (Central) Shahid Ali Memon, who is hearing the case as a special judge/tribunal under the Foreign Exchange Regu­lation Act, sent both the suspects to prison on judicial remand till Oct 11 and directed the investigating officer to file an investigation report.

Meanwhile, a NAB official moved an application before the court requesting it to issue a no-objection certificate (NOC) so that NAB could take the former KDA chief into custody to conduct an investigation into his alleged involvement in corrupt practices under Section 9 (a) of NAB Ordinance 1999.

The NAB chairman had issued a warrant for the arrest of the suspect on Sept 29.

The court issued the NOC and directed the NAB official to take him into custody from the prison.

According to the FIA, Hanif was arrested on Sept 18 and he disclosed that the former KDA chief allegedly used to give him Rs2.5 million every week to transfer the same to Canada in the foreign currency accounts of his wife and son.

The FIA lodged a case under Sections 4 (restriction on dealing in foreign exchange), 5 (restriction on payments) and 23 (penalty and procedure) of the Foreign Exchange Regu­lation Act, 1947 read with Section 109 (abetment) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Initially, the FIA had arrested the then KDA chief on Sept 16 after lodging a case against him for allegedly concealing his government job to obtain a passport by declaring himself a businessman.

On Sept 23, the court had granted him bail, but the FIA lodged a new case against him before his release from prison and arrested him again from the detention facility on Sept 25.

Jail officials sent to prison

The administrative judge of an antiterrorism court remanded on Thursday two former jail officials in custody for allegedly obstructing investigation into another case.

The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) had arrested the former Central Jail superintendent Ghulam Murtaza Shaikh and assistant superintendent Abdul Rehman Shaikh on Sept 28 after lodging a new case against them for allegedly creating hurdles in the investigation of jailbreak involving two undertrial prisoners in June.

However, the provincial police officer had transferred the investigation of the case from CTD to Crimes Branch.

After the end of their remand, a DSP of Crimes Branch Sindh produced them before the administrative judge and the court sent them to prison on judicial remand.

Initially, Ghulam Murtaza and Abdul Rehman along with 12 other jail officials were booked at the New Town police station and arrested for their alleged negligence in the June 13 escape of two militants from the central prison.

However, both the officials along with the then deputy superintendent Faheem Anwar Memon were released on bail in July.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2017