Health grounds: Court rejects Langove’s request for exemption

Balochistan CM’s former aide appears in a wheelchair before accountability judge

QUETTA: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) presented Balochistan chief minister’s former adviser on finance Mir Khalid Langove before an accountability court on Monday after the court rejected his application for exemption from personal appearances.

Earlier Langove’s counsel submitted the application along with a medical certificate, informing the court that the CM’s former adviser was ill and under treatment in a hospital.  The counsel requested Judge Abdul Majeed Nasar that the former adviser be exempted from court appearances.

However, Justice Nasar rejected the application and asked NAB officials to present him anyway. The NAB authorities later brought Langove in an ambulance and presented him before the court on a wheelchair.

The two other accused in the mega corruption case – former finance secretary Mushtaq Ahmed Raisani and Sohail Majeed Shah – also appeared before the court. The NAB authorities handed to Langove, Raisani and Shah the copies of references filed against them in the accountability court.

NAB on May 26, 2016 formally arrested Langove after the high court rejected his bail plea in a mega corruption scam. Langove stepped down after NAB recovered more than Rs730 million, including foreign currency and gold, from the Quetta residence of Mushtaq Raisani.

The court adjourned hearing of a corruption case of till March 6.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 28^th, 2017.