KARACHI: An accountability court on Monday remanded back a corruption reference against Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon and others to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman over the issue of jurisdiction.

The anti-graft watchdog in 2016 had filed the reference and alleged Mr Memon, along with his accomplices, committed corruption to the tune of over Rs5 billion in awarding advertisements for the provincial government’s awareness campaigns in electronic media.

When the case came up for hearing on Monday, an application was already filed on behalf of the three accused persons — Salman Mansoor, Syed Naveed and Umar Shahzad — through their counsel Raj Ali Wahid.

In their application, they prayed before the court acquit them from the reference or return it to the authorities concerned.

Accountability judge orders anti-graft watchdog to send the case to court of relevant jurisdiction

After hearing arguments, the court allowed the application and remanded back the reference to the NAB chairman, directing him to forward the matter to the court of relevant jurisdiction.

The defence counsel submitted that no allegation had been made against public office holders in the reference of accumulating any material benefit for their alleged illegal acts, violations of law and misuse of authority.

He further submitted that the applicants neither gained any material benefit for themselves nor for anyone who acted on their behalf.

He added that the calculation of alleged loss was based on “mere presumptions”. He argued that the reference had been ousted from the jurisdiction of the NAB court.

The reference, sent by the NAB chairman, said that the investigation was conducted regarding corruption and corrupt practices in the advertisement awareness campaigns on TV and FM channels between July 2013 and June 2015 and it was found that the accused acted in connivance with each other resulting in a loss of Rs3,279,177,029 (3.279bn) to the national exchequer.

It was revealed in the investigation that an amount of Rs5,766,479,766 was paid to seven advertisement companies in violation of the Sindh Public Procurement Rules 2010.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2024