NAB inquiry: Former KPT manager gets bail in illegal appointments case

Rauf Akhtar Farooqui faces charges of making illegal appointments at Karachi Port Trust

KARACHI: Rauf Akhtar Faruqi, who is already facing an inquiry before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for alleged land allotments during his tenure as Karachi administrator, was granted protective bail in yet another inquiry into alleged appointments.

The Sindh High Court (SHC) division bench, headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto, granted him bail on Monday in a case relating to illegal appointments in the Karachi Port Trust (KPT). Farooqui, who used to serve as a general manager at KPT, had moved the court after receiving call-up notices from NAB for inquiry into the alleged bogus appointments. According to NAB, he had appointed as many as 1,300 employees on grades BPS-1 to BPS-18 on an ad hoc (impromptu) basis while he was serving as the general manager.

Farooqui's lawyer, Advocate Malik Khushhal Awan, argued that such appointments do not require any specific procedures to be followed. The then manager had moved the summary for appointments and Farooqui had simply forwarded it to the chairperson, thus he had no role in those appointments, he claimed.

Awan pointed out that the NAB authorities had neither named the manager nor the chairperson as accused. An inquiry committee formed within the KPT had cleared the petitioner of the same allegations, he added.

However, Awan said that Farooqui is being harassed by the NAB authorities, who are summoning him for questioning in the case. He pleaded the court grant him protective bail.

After hearing the initial arguments, the judges granted protective pre-arrest bail to Farooqui against a sum of Rs1.5 million till December 22 with directions to cooperate with the investigation team. Meanwhile, notices were also issued to the NAB prosecutor general and others to file their comments by the next hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 15^th, 2015.