Ex-chief of Pakistan Steel Mills indicted

KARACHI: A federal anti-corruption court has indicted former chairman Pakistan Steel Mills Aftab Moin and eight others in a corruption case relating to the awarding of a canteen contract. All of them have denied the charges.

The jail authorities produced the accused, including Aftab Moin, Brigadier (retired) Abdul Qayyum, before the judge of federal anti-corruption court, Shaukat Memon, on Saturday who issued a charge-sheet against them.  The court issued notice to the prosecution to record the statements of the accused on June 24.

The nine accused are facing charges of misusing their authority to misappropriate Rs80 million in the award of canteen contracts. FIA sought time for filing the final charge-sheet. However, the counsel for Moin Aftab maintained that over nine months have passed and the FIA has not presented the final charge-sheet thus far. Therefore, the interim one should be considered as final. The court accepted the plea and adjourned the hearing.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 13^th, 2010.