JJVL corruption reference : Co-accused in Dr Asim case approach SHC against indictment

NAB has filed Rs17b corruption reference against Dr Asim, others in accountability court

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) called on Wednesday for documents relating to the alleged involvement of senior serving and retired officers of the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) and a private gas processing firm in a Rs17 billion corruption reference.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had filed the reference against former petroleum minister Dr Asim Hussain and others in an accountability court alleging their involvement in multi-billion rupee corruption in award of alleged illegal contracts of five gas fields in Sindh to Jamshoro Joint Venture Limited (JJVL).

As the accountability court was set to frame corruption charges against them, the co-accused approached the high court against their likely indictment. The petitioners submitted that the trial court had to indict them in the corruption reference, however, the detailed documents of the reference were not being provided to them along with a copy of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) judgment.

They submitted that the prosecution was hiding the IHC judgment on the JJVL matter and did not make it part of the case. Therefore, they pleaded the judges direct the trial court to provide complete copies of case documents, including judgments of the IHC, to them before the indictment. Till then, a direction was sought for the accountability court to restrain from indicting the co-accused.

During Wednesday’s proceedings, the NAB officials informed the court that the corruption reference had been filed against the accused in accordance with the law, adding that all the relevant documents were also filed to the accountability court.

Opposing the petitioners’ plea, the NAB officials contended that the petitioners can raise objections, if any, after the indictment.

However, the judges directed the petitioners’ lawyer to file the relevant documents to the court by June 2.

The case

The accused, beside Dr Asim, include SSGC incumbent managing director Khalid Rehman and former top SSGC officials Zuhair Siddiqui, Azeem Iqbal, Shoaib Warsi, Yusuf Jamil Ansari and Malik Usman, OGDCL former managing director Basharat Mirza and another official of the company, Zahid Bakhtiar and JJVL’s chief executive officer, Iqbal Z Ahmed.

They are believed to have fraudulently allowed the JJVL to process gas at Badin, Bobi, Sinjhoro, Naimat Basal and Kunar Pasakhi deep gas fields without conducting an open auction, signing agreements and memorandums of understanding as required by law. Thus, a loss of Rs17.4 billion was inflicted upon the public, alleges the NAB.

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