KARACHI, Oct 19: Judge Mrs Qaiser Iqbal of the Accountability Court No. 1 dismissed on Tuesday an application of the prosecution seeking amendment to the charge against Younus Dalia, a former chief of Habib Bank, and three others in a corruption case.
The former bank chief and others were charged with corruption and misappropriation of funds in the Yellow Cab Scheme of the then Premier Nawaz Sharif.
The judge, who is also the administrative judge of all ACs in Karachi, fixed Nov 4 and ordered special public prosecutor Syed Nadeem Hussain Shah to examine prosecution witnesses on the next date.
Dalia and three other senior officials of the bank - Sabir Hussain, Pir Didar Hussain Sarhandi and Anwar Haider Qureshi - were booked for embezzling over Rs236 million in 1996.
It was alleged that a vigilance cell of the bank impounded over 57 vehicles, given under a scheme of then prime minister Nawaz Sharif, after the owners defaulted on the payment of the due instalments.
Later, the accused allegedly released the impounded vehicles after receiving due payments from the owners. They allegedly did not deposit the money in the bank.
The case was initially sent to the special court for banking offences. However, it was later transferred to the AC. All accused are on bail.
CHAUDHRY SHARIF CASE: Judge Mrs Qaiser Iqbal of the AC-1 put off the indictment of a former deputy director of the Federal Investigation Agency, being retried "for amassing huge wealth and assets through illegal and corrupt means".
The judge fixed Oct 27 for indictment of Chaudhry Mohammad Sharif after the defence counsel submitted that a bench of the Sindh High Court would pronounce its order on Oct 26 on the constitutional petition of the former FIA official regarding the separation of his case from that of two co-accused.
The judge had earlier rejected the application for acquittal of Chaudhry Mohammed Sharif, being represented by Anver Tariq and Ismat Mehdi. Special public prosecutor Nadeem Hussain Shah represented the state.
Former FIA DD Chaudhry Mohammed Sharif, along with two co- accused, was earlier convicted and sentenced to a 14-year term by the then judge of AC-1, Mr Qamaruddin Bohra. The co-accused were Mohammed Hanif, an FIA constable, and Mukhtar Ahmed, domestic servant of Mr Sharif.
The accused later moved an appeal against the trial court judgment in the Sindh High Court, which remanded back the case for retrial.
The former FIA official, who was initially released on parole by the Jamali government and later on bail from the Supreme Court, and the two co-accused are being retried on the orders of the Sindh High Court.
Chaudhry Sharif, who was taken into custody a little after the Oct 12 military takeover, is also charged with the remittance of an amount of Rs710 million from Pakistan to foreign countries and then bringing it back.
The accused allegedly indulged into different businesses and acquired properties in the names of his family members and a foreigner, Bastiaan Martin Van. He was also alleged to have acquired loans from National Development Finance Corporation, Industrial Development Bank of Pakistan and National Bank for establishment of Zarak Textile Mills.
It was alleged that the former FIA DD held 96 per cent paid-up shares of Zarak Textile Mills (Pvt) Ltd, 100 per cent shares of Marman Pharma (Pvt) Ltd and huge shares in Kehkashan Textile Mills Ltd.
The investigation team also detected certain expenditures made by the former public servants which included huge bills of cellular phones.
Besides, Chaudhry Sharif allegedly used six mobile phone numbers during 1997 and 1999. The total amount of these phone bills was over Rs1.46 million.
The former FIA official also allegedly spent over one million rupees on his domestic and international travelling by air during the period from 1997 to 1999.