KARACHI, Dec 18: An accountability court deferred on Thursday for the fourth time the pronouncement of judgment in a corruption reference against former navy chief Mansoorul Haq and another ex- navy official.

Judge Parkash Lal Ambwani of the AC-4 fixed Dec 22 for the pronouncement of the verdict. He had first reserved judgment till Nov 15 after hearing final arguments on Oct 28.

The judgment could not be announced on Nov 15 as the judge was on leave and the administrative judge of the accountability courts in Karachi, Mrs Qaiser Iqbal, deferred it till Nov 22.

The judgement, however, could not be pronounced on Nov 22 and judge Ambwani fixed Dec 3 for pronouncement of the judgement. But the judgment was further deferred till Dec 18.

According to one of the two defence counsel, they were verbally told to re-argue the case as the judgment could not be announced within the one month period from the date of final arguments.

The judge fixed Dec 18 for the pronouncement of judgement after the two counsel submitted that they did not want to re-argue the case. However, the judgment was further deferred.

The former navy chief, being represented by Iqtidar Ali Hashmi, and Commodore (Retd) Mirza Ashfaq Baig, being represented by Azizullah Shaikh, have been prosecuted for causing over Rs1.8 billion loss to the national exchequer in the purchase of three vessels for the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation.

According to the prosecution, Mansoorul Haq with criminal intent to obtain undue benefits got an approval for the purchase of ships for the PNSC in 1994 from the then government.

When he was appointed chief of naval staff, he allegedly hatched a conspiracy with absconding accused Rear Admiral (Retd) Javed Ali and co-accused Ashfaq Baig for the purchase of the ships on much exorbitant prices.

The naval official were charged with violating the laid down procedure, terms of approval and purchasing ships, which were not technically suitable.

It was further alleged that the purchase of ships was against the selection criteria of the board of directors and without considering the classification record of the ships, payment of customs, regulatory and other duties.

The ships were Apolonia, purchased for US$14.82 million and later renamed as Sawat, Ora Bhum for US$15.55 million (Shalamar) and Independent Voyager for Us$16.77 million.

The accused allegedly in collusion, connivance and collaboration with each other and absconding accused Javed Ali fraudulently misused the official authority to obtain undue benefits and they failed to exercise their authority to prevent losses to the exchequer, thereby, committing an offence of corruption and corrupt practices as defined under Section 9 of the NAB Ordinance.

The prosecution was represented by special public prosecutor Sarfraz Ahmed Tanoli, who examined 16 prosecution witnesses.