Anti-graft body files reference against Dr Asim

KARACHI:

The country’s top anti-graft body on Thursday filed a reference against former petroleum minister Dr Asim Hussain and five others on charges of corruption involving Rs462.5 billion.

Asim, who also owns the Ziauddin chain of hospitals, has been accused of misusing his authority as a minister for kickbacks and of swindling people in the name of the trust-owned charitable health facility.



The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has also named former petroleum secretary Ejaz Chaudhry, Karachi Dock Labour Board’s (KDLB) ex-CEO Safdar Hussain, Karachi Development Authority’s (KDA) former directors Syed Athar Hussain and Masood Haider Jaffery, and Ziauddin University & Hospital Group Financial Adviser Abdul Hameed as co-accused in the reference for allegedly abetting Asim.

Filed before Saad Qureshi, the administrative judge of accountability courts in Karachi, the reference contains 40 pages, reading nearly the same contentions as made during the past hearings in progress reports, but in more detail.

NAB has also furnished a list of witnesses against the accused, along with a pile of ‘documentary evidence’ catalouged in around 3,000 pages.

According to the documents, Rs462.5 billion of public money was embezzled during 2010 and 2013. Of this, Rs450 billion were allegedly gained through a scam in which gas supply to the agriculture sector was illegally curtailed to benefit a particular group associated with the fertiliser industry.

The former petroleum minister is also said to have acquired more than 100 acres of land from the government in the name of charitable purposes, but, instead, used it for commercial purposes.

The amount involved in this case is estimated at Rs9.5 billion, while the remaining Rs3 billion are said to have been laundered outside the country illegally.

‘Role’ of co-accused

Chaudhry, the former petroleum secretary, has been accused of facilitating Asim in the fertiliser scam by moving summaries regarding gas curtailment in the name of load management, which, according to the investigators, was unjustified and led to an arbitrary price hike of the commodity in the country.



The secretary is also said to have deliberately failed to implement the decision of the Economic Coordination Committee, which approved 20% cut in gas supply to fertiliser companies in June 2011.

Hameed, the Ziauddin group’s financial adviser, is accused of facilitating Asim in turning black money into white and laundering it out of the country to buy assets. He is said to be the ‘accounts man’ of the former minister.

Safdar, the KDLB’s ex-CEO, is accused of helping Asim take control of the board’s hospitals, and in extending the contract, without considering the procurement rules, to the former minister’s medical centre as an outsourced health facility.

He is also accused of having allowed the private hospital to use the KDLB’s premises for nursing accommodation.

For Safdar’s alleged favours, he is said to have been rewarded by being appointed as human resources general manager at the Ziauddin hospitals.

The former KDA officials have been accused of illegally granting lease of public land, including two acres in North Nazimabad and 2.8 acres in Clifton, to Asim.

The NAB reference has been admitted in the court and is likely to be taken up in the next hearing scheduled for March 5.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 26^th, 2016.