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KARACHI, May 31: An accountability court convicted on Friday a former PSO official, his wife and another family member for amassing wealth through illegal means.
Judge Rahmat Hussain Jafferi of the AC-3, who is also the administrative judge of all ACs in Karachi division, sentenced Iqbal Ahmed Turabi to 10 years in jail and his wife, Najma Iqbal, to a five-year term.
The couple were also fined Rs95 million each by the judge, who ordered that the defaulter on the payment would have to undergo an additional three-year term of simple imprisonment.
The judge also sentenced Asif Hussain, the younger brother of Mrs Najma Iqbal, to a three-month term under section 31-A of the NAB Ordinance for disobeying the court orders.
Asif Hussain’ brother-in-law, Hassan Raza, was also convicted and sentenced to a five-year term of rigorous imprisonment in the reference. He was fined Rs3 million and he would have to undergo an additional 30-month term in case of default on the payment.
The judge also disqualified all accused persons for seeking or from being elected, chosen, appointed or nominated as member or representative of any public body or any statuary or local authority or in service of Pakistan or of any province.
The 47-year-old Turabi, who served the PSO from 1987 to 2000 as an officer, acquired immovable property worth over Rs20 million in his name and in the names of accused Najma Iqbal, Asif Hussain, Hassan Raza and Ziauddin Taimuri.
The judge ordered the forfeiture of entire property of the accused persons to the government. It included a flat and a shop in Chapel Resort, Clifton, flat in Frere Town, a 1000-yard plot in Defence Housing Authority (DHA), a house measuring 429 square yards in DHA, a flat in Super Palace in Civil Lines, an office at Zamzama, DHA, a flat-cum-office in Falaknaz Centre, Shahrah-i- Faisal, and a shop in Prince Complex, Frere Town.
Besides, the accused maintained many local and foreign currency accounts. The transactions in those accounts were upto 50 million.
GIVEN LIFE TERM: The special anti-narcotics court, headed by Judge Ali Nawaz Pirzada, sentenced three drug pushers to life in jail.
The judge also imposed a fine of Rs100,000 each on accused Ibrahim, Muhammed Saeed and Ayub, who were on bail. The judge ordered that the defaulter on the payment would have to undergo an additional two-year term.
According to prosecution, a party of the Kalakot police, headed by ASI Zulfikar, raided the Cafe Balochistan on a tip-off and arrested Ibrahim and Muhammed Saeed redhanded with 80 kilograms of charas on December 1, 1997.
Accused Ayub along with Shakil and Waheed, however, managed to flee the scene. Later, Ayub obtained a pre-arrest bail, but the two others remained untraceable.
CONVICTED: The additional district and sessions judge, East, Rasheed A Soomro, sentenced a truck snatcher to a five-year term.
Shahzad, who had snatched the vehicle on November 7, 2000 in Soldier Bazar from Wali Khan, was also fined Rs3,000.
The judge ordered that the convict would have to undergo an additional one- month term in case of default on the payment.
BOMB BLAST CASE: An anti-terrorism court put off the hearing of a bomb blast case after the prosecution closed its side with the statement of the investigation officer.
Two workers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement — Yaqoob and Asif — are being tried for the bomb blast, that had killed nine people and wounded 28 others.
The bomb, planted in a sugar-cane crushing machine, had exploded around 6:45pm on Jan 17, near the Pakistan Chowk within the limits of Arambagh police.
The judge put off the hearing of the case till Saturday for the statement of the accused persons.
