KARACHI, March 8: Begum Salma Ahmed, former member of the National Assembly and chief of Pakistan Association of Woman Entrepreneurs (PAWE), was remanded in the custody of the National Accountability Bureau for interrogation into a Rs13.3 million corruption case filed by an accountability court.
The administrative judge of the ACs, Mrs Qaiser Iqbal, gave the businesswoman into the custody of NAB investigators till March 21. She was arrested by the NAB on Tuesday.
It was alleged that an amenity plot of 603 square yards at Clifton was allotted to the PAWE for construction of a women complex in 1994. According to the terms and conditions of the allotment order, the plot was to be used only for women complex and not for residential or any other purpose.
Begum Salma Ahmed allegedly proposed to the then commerce minister for setting up a fashion design technology centre for women in Karachi. The initial estimate for the project was Rs6 million, which was later increased in the feasibility report to Rs13.3 million.
The project was approved by the board of administrators of the Export Development Fund at a cost of Rs13.3 million. Begum Ahmed and Export Promotion Bureau entered into an agreement on May 16, 1994.
The former woman MNA allegedly withdrew the entire amount from the bank and did not utilize the same on the women complex despite it was mentioned in the agreement that the amount released by the EPB would be utilized on the project only.
CHARGE FRAMED: The same court indicted two brothers, both directors of a Tando Adam-based pharmaceutical firm, for causing a loss of over Rs90 million.
Abdul Hameed and Abdul Razzaq of Ahson Drug Company were charged with importing a huge quantity of different raw material on the pretext of their use in the manufacture of pharmaceutical finished products on concessional duties and without sales tax under the provision of government rules.
The same court had earlier convicted three drug controllers of the Federal Drugs Control Administration in seven identical corruption cases and sentenced them to a four-year term in each reference.
Judge Mrs Qaiser Iqbal of the AC-1 also imposed a fine of Rs3 million each in each case on Dr Mohammed Tanveer Alam, Rehmatullah Baig and Adbul Sami Mangrio, who issued consumption certificates to a pharmaceutical firm to achieve personal gains and caused huge losses to the national exchequer.