KARACHI: An accountability court has fixed May 26 for examining a prosecution witness through video link from Rawalpindi in a Rs17 billion graft reference against former federal minister Dr Asim Hussain and others.
Dr Asim, a close aide of former president Asif Ali Zardari, along with the former managing directors and other senior officials of the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) and Oil and Gas Development Corporation (OGDC) has been charged with misusing his authority and fraudulently awarding contracts of five gas fields in Sindh to a privately-managed gas processing company, the Jamshoro Joint Venture Limited (JJVL), that had caused a loss of Rs17.338bn to the exchequer.
When the matter recently came up before the Accountability Court-IV Judge Suresh Kumar, Special Public Prosecutor Dr Raja Mohammad Ali submitted that prosecution witness Ashfaq Ahmed was ill and could not travel to Karachi from Rawalpindi for recording his statement.
The court was pleaded to ask the witness to appear before the Accountability Court in Rawalpindi to record his statement through video link.
The judge sent a letter requesting the Accountability Court, Rawalpindi to make arrangements so that the statement of the witness could be recorded through video link.
The matter was fixed on May 26 for recording the statement of the witness.
In Feb 2018, the court had indicted Dr Asim, former MDs of SSGC Khalid Rehman, Zuhair Siddiqui and Azeem Iqbal Siddiqui, former OGDC MD Basharat Mirza, the then deputy MDs of the gas utility, Yousuf Jamil Ansari and Shoaib Warsi, former SSGC general manager treasury and finance Malik Usman and JJVL chief executive officer Iqbal Z. Ahmed in the present case.
The National Accountability Bureau had filed a reference against them in March 2016 stating that the former minister and officials allowed the JJVL to illegally process gas of Kunar Pasakhi Deep, Bobi, Sinjhoro, Naimat Basal and Badin gas fields without an open auction, agreement and memorandum of understanding.
It further said that the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and natural gas liquid extracted at an exorbitant rate was illegally allowed and the excessive rate caused losses of Rs474.6 million and Rs4.14bn to the OGDC and SSGC, respectively.
The excessive NGL processing charges was Rs1.45bn, outstanding NGL payments stood at Rs3.4bn and outstanding payments for LPG amounted to Rs7.87bn.
Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2021