ISLAMABAD, Nov 23: The Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court has acquitted an OGDCL contractor who was convicted by the Accountability Court on corruption charges.
The division bench, comprising Justice Moulvi Anwarul Haq and Justice Abdul Shakoor Paracha, on Thursday accepted the appeal of Sadaqat Saeed Malik against his conviction by the Accountability Court-III, Rawalpindi.
The Accountability Court had earlier awarded him eight-year imprisonment and a fine of US $245,846 or equivalent in rupees, and acquitted three co-accused and senior officials of the OGDCL.
On Thursday the appeal, against conviction of Mr Malik and the acquittal of his co-accused, came up for final arguments before the bench.
Mr Malik was accused of securing contract for the supply of skid mounted oil and gas separators to the OGDCL.
It was alleged that the contract was obtained by concealing the facts that Mr Malik’s firm, Darwaish-al-Darwaish, was blacklisted by the OGDCL and had formed a new firm M/s Safa International.
Consequently he allegedly supplied the used material to the company, which was not according to the specifications.
Advocate Zulfikar Khalid Maluka, counsel for Mr Malik, contended that the co-accused were acquitted after the examination of the evidence, whereas his client was convicted on the basis of same evidence.
He stated that his client had supplied brand new material but the manager procurement of the OGDCL, had demanded illegal gratification for clearance of the supplied material and upon refusal the manager turned against him.
Malik Rab Nawaz Noon, counsel representing the acquitted OGDCL officials, maintained that the manager was responsible for causing loss to the national exchequer as he in his collusion with Mr Malik obtained the contract in a deceitful manner.
The NAB prosecutor, Malik Mohammed Afzal, prayed before the court to maintain the conviction of Mr Malik and convict the acquitted persons as well.
The court accepted the appeal of Mr Malik and dismissed the appeal of the NAB as being superfluous and imaginative.