Two SSGC officials given into NAB custody

Deputy, former MD accused of embezzling funds

KARACHI: An accountability court on Saturday remanded an incumbent deputy managing director and a former managing director (MD) of the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) into the custody of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for two weeks on charges of corruption.

NAB produced the deputy MD, Shoaib Warsi, and former MD, Zuhair Siddiqui, before the administrative judge, Saad Qureshi, of the city's accountability courts. The investigating officer submitted that an inquiry had been initiated against the suspects for allegedly embezzling gas utility funds and causing billions of rupees worth of losses.



The officer maintained that the suspects misappropriated funds and made illegal inductions into the SSGC. They were also accused of misusing their authority and bypassing the due process while awarding LPG contracts.

Warsi and Siddiqui were arrested in August by the Rangers, a few days after the former petroleum minister, Dr Asim Hussain, was taken into custody. They were subsequently detained for three months. It is said that the suspects, during their detention, confessed before a joint interrogation team to culpability in the irregularities in the gas utility office. Therefore, they have been handed over to NAB for a formal investigation.



The accountability judge sent the suspects to NAB custody on 14-day physical remand and sought a progress report on next hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29^th, 2015.