LAHORE, Sept 26: An accountability court on Thursday indicted PPP secretary-general Jahangir Badar on charges of amassing assets worth Rs50 million disproportionate to his known sources of income.

The court summoned the prosecution witnesses for Oct 7 after the accused pleaded not-guilty.

In the chargesheet, Badar has been accused of misusing his official position as federal minister and senator to acquire assets illegally in his and in the name of his dependents.

As charged by the court, the actual worth of these assets according to the latest assessment stands at Rs50 million which were acquired at an original cost of Rs10 million by the accused.

Badar purchased a plot for Rs50,000 in 1989 in Rahman Villas and sold it for Rs100,000 in 2000. He has also been accused of purchasing another plot measuring 10 marla in Lahore’s Allama Iqbal Town on which he constructed a house with a cost of Rs350,000 and sold it in 2000. He purchased one house worth Rs2 million in Iqbal Town in 1994 and spent Rs2.5 million on its renovation. He acquired a two kanal and three marla plot in Ali Town and gifted it to his son, Zulfiqar, for Rs600,000 besides another eight-marla plot in the same locality.

The NAB has alleged that Badar purchased a 454 square feet plot in Rahman Plaza, Queens Road, for Rs440,000 and one for Rs125,000 in Advocates Society in the name of his son in 1995.

The accused declared Rs1.5 million worth foreign exchange bearer certificates in one of his income tax returns while millions of rupees were deposited in his bank accounts from 1994 to 1999. It has been alleged that he undertook many foreign trips with his family members on which he spent Rs1.6 million.

Badar is already being tried by the NAB on charges of making illegal recruitments in the SNGPL, the PSO and the OGDC by misusing his official position as a federal minister for petroleum.