MULTAN: An accountability court on Friday acquitted all the people, 46 altogether, of charges in a reference by the National Accountability Bureau regarding the Wapda Employees Cooperative Housing Society (WECHS) case.

Advocate Naeem Khan who defended four people in the case told Dawn that Judge Abdul Rashid acquitted all the people of the charge and those in NAB custody would be released forthwith if not required in any other case.

Six people -- Allah Dita, Faisal Saleem, Suleman Siddiqi, Muhammad Khalid, Abdul Razzaq Kashif and Mirza Talkha Baig -- under custody while Muhammad Ali Dogar, Hafiz Masood Nawaz, Chaudhry Nasir Ali and Muhammad Saleem were on bail.

The detailed order of the case is yet to be released.

On June 27, 2016, an interim reference was submitted to the NAB court against 13 WECHS office-bearers, including president Muzaffar Ali Abbasi and secretary Saeed Ahmed Khan, for a Rs1.011 billion fraud in phase III.

Arrested on March 24, 2016, Mr Khan died in coma on March 15 last. On July 11, 2017, he was granted bail on medical grounds.

He was admitted to Nishtar Hospital in May 2017, after, according to jail authorities, he injured himself in a suicide attempt but his family alleged that it was an attempt on his life.

On Jan 27, 2017, the NAB director general of Multan ordered attachment of his 18 properties but when the supplementary reference was filed on Feb 2, only 12 properties were mentioned in it. The number of accused increased to 46 from 13.

As per section 12 of the NAO, the director general can freeze the property only for 15 days and after filing the reference only the court can do it but the properties were kept frozen for over a year although the court ordered to freeze the properties on Feb 14, 2018.

Two frozen houses remained in the use of NAB investigation officer Mohsin Haroon and deputy director Qaisar Mehmood, Both houses are owned by Nazia Zia, the sister of Wajid Rasool. The houses were later vacated.

The NAB director general in the reference stated that two management committee members of WECHS, including Muhammad Yousaf Wahla and Arif Wains, approved the allotment of commercial plots in connivance with other MC members, however they were exonerated by the NAB, while saying that no malafide or illegal gains were found on their part.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2019