LAHORE, Nov 11: An accountability court initiated on Monday proclamation process against four co-accused of Seth Nisar in a Rs80.51 million corruption reference.

The co-accused are Irfan Seamless Pipe Company directors Mian Abdul Razzaq, Mian Qurban Ali, Tahir Nisar Mirza and customs appraiser Qaiser Pervez.

The process server informed the court that warrants for the arrest of the co-accused issued on the last hearing could not be served upon them.

The court was informed that the whereabouts of the four accused could not be made known and they had wilfully concealed them from the operation of law.

The court ordered the initiation of proclamation process against four co-accused under Section 87 of CrPC.

The police officials concerned have been directed to submit a report on Dec 9 that proclamation process has been completed. In case the accused are declared proclaimed offenders, the NAB has the option of moving an application under Section 31-A of the NAB Ordinance for three-year conviction in absentia.

Other co-accused in the reference — customs department officials Sakhi Muhammad (principal appraiser), Muhammad Saleem (superintendent) and Irfan Seamless Pipe Co directors Muhammad Irfan, Khizar Hayat Virk, Nisarud Din — have already been granted pre-arrest bail by the court on the previous hearing.

These accused had pleaded that since their pre-arrest warrants had not been issued by the NAB chairman, they could not be arrested by the bureau authorities.

It has been alleged that Seth Nisar formed Irfan Seamless Pipe Company in 1992 and became its chief executive. He imported steel raw material with the alleged abetment of four customs officials and seven executives of his company and evaded Rs85,121,548 customs duty on it.

According to the prosecution, in response to a reminder sent by the customs department in 1995, Seth Nisar claimed that he had resigned from the office of chief executive of the company and had no concern with its affairs.

The NAB investigations have brought out that such claim was fake since he was controlling the affairs of the company through his henchmen.

It has been alleged that all the accused committed forgery and tampered with the official record to cover the defaulted customs duty and caused a loss of Rs80.51 million to the national exchequer on this account.

Seth Nisar is facing four references, including one before a Peshawar accountability court, on charges of corruption in the name of his bogus company.