Court finds LDA officials not guilty in corruption case

As the NAB failed to produce evidence, the court released both the the accused

KARACHI: An accountability court, announcing its verdict on Thursday, released former Lyari Development Authority (LDA) Director-General (DG) Agha Masood Abbas and Finance Director Abdul Ghani Jokhio due to lack of evidence in the reference filed against financial irregularities in LDA.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) lawyer failed to provide adequate evidence against the two accused and the court released them.

Accountability court indicts former PPP MPA

According to the NAB, investigation against the accused was started on the basis of news reports in the media about financial irregularities. Abbas was accused in 2008 of embezzling billions of rupees in LDA funds kept in a private bank account.

Illegal appointments in KPT

An accountability court ordered the accused's counsels on Thursday to come prepared on the next hearing in the reference against illegal appointments and abuse of authority in Karachi Port Trust (KPT). MPA Javed Hanif and other accused appeared before the court.

NAB presented their witness, Port and Shipping Deputy Secretary Saifullah Khan, in court. However, the accused's counsels requested for more time to prepare. The court, accepting the request, granted time till next hearing on March 29. Accused Babar Ghauri, who has also been nominated in the reference, is still at large.