KARACHI, Oct 19: Judge Muhammed Jawaid Alam of the AC-4 put off on Friday the hearing of a corruption reference against former prime minister Benazir Bhutto till Nov 7.

The former premier along with others is facing the charges of appointing and promoting 1,393 people in the national carrier in violation of rules and regulation.

Other accused in the reference are Air Vice Marshal (retd) Umer Farooq, former PIA chief, Naheed Khan, Ghulam Qadir Shah Jamote, Siraj Shamsudin and Najamul Hasan.

The reference was initially filed against the former principal secretary of Benazir Bhutto, Ahmed Sadiq, and other accused persons on May 15, 1997.

However, later, Ahmed Sadiq was excluded from the investigation and was made a prosecution witness following his statement before the investigators.

Following his statement the prosecution agency submitted a supplementary charge against Benazir Bhutto and other accused before the then Ehtesab Bench of the Sindh High Court.

Later, the case was transferred to the accountability court, which recorded the statements of the remaining prosecution witnesses.