ISLAMABAD, Nov 17: Three corruption references against former petroleum minister Anwar Saifullah Khan have been transferred to the accountability court, Rawalpindi, from Lahore.
The cases, which were transferred on the application of the accused, are misuse of official authority by awarding a scrap contract, award of a dubious contract of “Dry Hole Study” and misuse of OGDC’s aircraft.
Meanwhile, Judge Mansoor Ali Khan of Accountability Court No II adjourned the hearing of the three cases for November 22. Khawaja Haris, advocate, is representing Anwar Saifullah in these cases.
Anwar Saifullah is already on bail from the same court in the LPG quota case.
Judge M.A. Shahid Siddiqui of the accountability court, Lahore, before shifting of the case, had already indicted Mr Saifullah in the scrap case. A statement of a prosecution witness, Mussadiq Hussain Kiani, the deputy chief store officer, Oil and Gas Development Corporation (OGDC), had also been recorded.
The indictment suggested that Mr Saifullah, in connivance with the then OGDC chairman, late Rifat Askari, ordered the sale of 2,298.5 metric tons of scrap to one of his favourite firms in violation of the prescribed procedure.
It was also alleged that this sale fetched a much lesser price than the amount obtained through the auction of the same material.
The total loss suffered by the OGDC was Rs67.9 million.
Similarly, in another case, the accused awarded a dubious contract of ‘Dry Hole Study’ to HDIP and IPR during 1994 and 1995 to evaluate OGDC’s exploration progress.
The reference said the awarding of the ‘Dry Hole Study’ contract was in violation of the rules and procedure, and incurred a loss of $395,526 on the OGDC.
The prosecution in the reference cited the OGDC’s report, which suggested that the ‘Dry Hole Study’ was not required, and when conducted, failed to satisfy the Corporation’s experts. The reference said that by approving the summary, the minster inflicted heavy loss to the OGDC.
In the third reference, he was accused of misusing the OGDC’s aircraft for his personal use from February 2, 1994 to November 2, 1996.