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KARACHI, June 6: The Sindh High Court granted interim bail before arrest to Muhammad Rasheed Hasan, a former PIA executive, allegedly involved in leasing and purchase of six 747-300 Boeing aircraft from the Cathay-Pacific airline.
According to the National Accountability Bureau, the leasing and purchase of the six ‘unserviceable’ airliners caused a loss of $ 6 million to the Pakistan International Airlines. Darius Cyrus Minwala, the Cathay-Pacific agent in Pakistan, and Pervez Hussain, who deals in defence equipment procurement, have been cited as co-accused in the reference filed in an accountability court and fixed for hearing on June 15.
Advocate Saadat Yar Khan, counsel for the applicant, said his client retired from the PIA in December 2006. He served the airline as general manager for fleet planning, director (services) and senior vice-president but had nothing to do with the induction of the aircraft in any capacity.
The planes were first leased for two years in 1999 by a high-powered committee headed by an air marshal and vice-chief of the air staff. The lease was extended for three years in 2001 and outright purchase was made in 2004. He was not a member of any committee or board that took the decision.
In fact, the counsel said, Rasheed Hasan had made a presentation in 1999 before the then PIA chairman, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, and 18 senior executives of the airline against the acquisition of the aircraft. He had warned that the airline would incur a loss of over Rs502 million if it leased the six aircraft. He favoured the renovation and upgradation of the existing fleet of B747-200 planes. However, his opinion was overruled on the ground that the higher operating cost of the B747-300 planes would be more than made up by higher revenue generation.
The counsel claimed that the accused had explained the entire decision making process and his own innocence to the NAB investigators but they did not include the officials responsible for the deal in their inquiry. Instead of being exonerated, he was subjected to torture and humiliation. The agony he suffered forced him to acquire a pacemaker.
A division bench comprising Justices Amir Hani Muslim and Munib Ahmed Khan admitted him to interim bail till June 13 and issued the NAB a notice for that date.
NAB REFERENCE: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday allowed bail before arrest to three market committee employees accused of corruption in the sum of Rs500,000 each.
Mohammad Ayaz Khan, Khadim Hussain and Azizur Rehman Shaikh are accused by the National Accountability Bureau of allotting shops in the new fruit and vegetable market. They are alleged to have bypassed rules and procedure and allotted about 337 shops.
The accused submitted through Advocate Shaukat Hussain Zubedi that they were mere employees without any authority to take a decision on allotments, which were sanctioned by a high-powered panel of the market committee. The accusations against them were motivated and they were prepared to face the reference and would not evade a trial by the accountability court.
A division bench comprising Justices Amir Hani Muslim and Munib Ahmed Khan granted the accused pre-arrest interim bail till June 14 and issued a notice to the NAB subject to their furnishing security in the sum of Rs500,000 each.
PRODUCTION ORDER: The bench ordered the production of a 13-year-old live-in maid, who went missing in November.
Petitioner Mumtaz Begum submitted through Advocate Zia Ahmed Awan that her daughter, Shahnaz alias Shanno, worked and lived in a Gulistan-i-Jauhar house, where she also worked. She had been absent from the house since November 25, 2006, and the employer, Rizwan Warsi, had no plausible explanation. His driver has also been absent since.
She said her daughter was a minor, who could not contract a free-will marriage and she lodged a complaint with the Gulistan-i-Jauhrar police station. The police reluctantly registered a complaint but discharged it. The case was later quashed by a judicial magistrate in disregard of the provisions of law, she alleged.
The investigation officer appeared before the bench on Wednesday and submitted that he tried to ascertain the whereabouts of the missing girl and also conducted raids to recover her. The bench told him that the SSP (investigation) would be summoned in person if the IO failed to recover and produce the girl on June 8.
