LAHORE: An accountability court on Friday dismissed acquittal applications of provincial minister Sibtain Khan of the PTI and six other suspects in a reference of awarding an unlawful contract for extracting precious minerals in Chiniot.

Khan and others were present in the court when the verdict was announced. The court fixed Feb 18 for the indictment of the suspects.

Sibtain Khan, who was elected to assembly from Mianwali, had resigned as minister for forest, wildlife and fisheries after his arrest on June 15, 2019. He was released on bail by the Lahore High Court in September 2019 and again took oath as forest minster in January 2020.

The NAB alleged that Khan violated laws and awarded a multi-billion contract to a firm of his choice namely Earth Resource Private Limited in 2007 when he was minister for mines and minerals in the PML-Q government.

The bureau stated the company that was given the contract had a paid-up capital of Rs2.5m only and also lacked the experience required for the project. It said the company was not even registered with SECP and Khan signed the agreement ignoring the laws.

However, the counsel for the petitioner argued that the contract was given with the permission of the then chief minister and the cabinet. He said laws were strictly observed while granting the contract.

On the other hand, Sibtain Khan through his counsel argued that he had no power to award any contract on his own so there could be no question of misuse of authority. He said the allegations by the NAB were false, fabricated and politically motivated.

He asked the court to allow his application under Section 265-K of CrPC and acquit him of the charges.

Other six suspects are mines and minerals dept former secretary Imtiaz Ahmad Cheema, former chief inspector mines Abdul Sattar, former GM operations Muhammad Aslam, Rao Manzar Hayat, Salman Ghani and Muhammad Shahid.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2022