HYDERABAD: Accountability Court judge Inam Ali Kalhoro on Thursday remanded Makhdoom Jaliluzzaman, a former taluka nazim of Hala and son of late Makhdoom Amin Fahim, in the custody of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in a case of possession of assets beyond known means of income.

NAB investigating officer Adnan Hafeez Abbasi who, along with special prosecutor Niaz Hussain Mirani, produced Makhdoom Jaliluzzaman alias Makhdoom Habibullah in the court to seek his physical remand said the accused was beneficiary of ill-gotten money he received from co-accused Mushtaq Ahmed Shaikh, an employee in Hyderabad treasury department.

According to the IO’s application for remand, a reference was filed against Makhdoom, Shaikh and others over charges of accumulation of assets beyond means involving an amount of Rs704.778 million.

The IO stated that Makhdoom remained taluka nazim of Hala from 2001 to 2010 and he received Rs6m in his own account and Rs1.5m in his wife’s account from Shaikh, who also paid Rs7.5m for the purchase of a flat on 24th commercial street in DHA, Karachi, which was in the name of Makhdoom’s brother-in-law.

He said that Makhdoom applied for plea bargain under section 25(b) of National Accountability Ordinance 1999 on Oct 19, 2018, and the bureau recommended it for approval of competent authority subject to fulfillment of condition of returning Rs15m. On Jan 3, 2019, the accused submitted an affidavit along with a pay order for Rs7.5m and agreed to surrender the flat as well but he failed to do so to date, he said.

He said that despite a number of notices served upon him the accused did not complete conditions of the plea bargain which led to cancellation of his plea bargain application by the competent authority and, therefore, he had been arrested and produced before the court.

Makhdoom’s counsel Haji Khan Hingoro argued that the accused had been falsely implicated in the case. The IO be directed to allow lawyers’ access to the accused and meeting with his family members, he said.

The court directed that NAB would allow meeting of the accused with his family and advocates and he would be supplied food from his house after proper verification.

Mangrio said that NAB had failed to provide any evidence against his client and claimed he would produce evidence about payment of Rs15m. One Mushtaq Shah had stated that Makhdoom had borrowed money from him and this amount had been returned to Shaikh, he said.

The judge said in the remand order that perusal of material placed on record suggested that allegations against Makhdoom were well-founded and the IO had to investigate the case and scrutinize the material collected. The court, therefore, remanded him in NAB’s custody till Oct 7.

Bilawal condemns the arrest

Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has condemned in a statement the arrest of Makhdoom and termed it ‘vendetta’ by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf against opposition parties.

He demanded his release and said “the NAB has not come up with any charge neither it has shown any evidence before making the arrest. After announcement of movement against the PTI government under the Pakistan Democratic Movement, the NAB has become active against opposition parties and their leadership”.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2020