LAHORE: An accountability court on Tuesday extended physical remand of former provincial minister for forest, wildlife and fisheries Sibtain Khan in the case of awarding unlawful contract for extracting precious minerals in Chiniot.

Mr Khan, a PTI lawmaker from Mianwali, resigned as minister after his arrest earlier this month.

NAB states Mr Khan violated laws and awarded a multi-billion contract to a firm of his choice namely Earth Resource Private Limited (ERPL) in 2007 when he was a minister in the PML-Q government.

The bureau stated that the company that was given the contract had a paid-up capital of Rs2.5 million only and also lacked the experience required for the project. The company was not even registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan but Mr Khan signed the agreement ignoring the laws.

The court extended physical remand of Khan for another eight days.

Former secretary for mines & minerals department Imtiaz Ahmad Cheema, former chief inspector mines Abdul Sattar and former general manager operations of mines of the company Muhammad Aslam were also in the bureau’s custody.

The prosecution said Mr Cheema, at the behest of then minister Khan, made a technical committee and made Sattar and Aslam its members. It said the technical committee conducted a fake survey that led to the unlawful contract in favour of the company.

PLEA WITHDRAWN: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday dismissed as withdrawn an appeal challenging dismissal of a petition by a lower court against production order of leader of opposition in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz issued by the speaker.

Justice Mamoon Rashid Sheikh took up the petition as an “objection case” as the registrar office put an objection on its maintainability.

An accountability court had dismissed a petition moved by a woman lawyer challenging production order of Hamza issued by the speaker of the assembly.

“I have assailed the dismissal order of the accountability court,” petitioner’s counsel Aftab Bajwa said when asked by the judge whether he challenged the act of the assembly’s speaker to issue production order.

The counsel further stated that the accountability court dismissed the petition in haste and without applying judicial mind.

He argued that issuing production order of a suspect on physical remand with the NAB was violation of law on the part of the speaker.

The counsel said whole family of Hamza was accused of committing corruption worth billions of rupees. He asked the court to set aside the lower court’s order and also the production order of the respondent issued by the speaker.

After hearing the arguments, Justice Sheikh reserved decision on the appeal. However, the counsel withdrew the appeal before the announcement of the decision leading to dismissal of the appeal as withdrawn.

Hamza is on physical remand with the NAB in Ramzan Sugar Mills case. The bureau alleged that then chief minister Shahbaz Sharif approved construction of a drain in Chiniot at a cost of Rs360 million only to benefit Ramzan Sugar Mills owned by his sons Hamza and Salman. It said the public funds were misused for the personal benefit of family business of the accused.

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2019