Assets beyond means case: Court orders NAB to declare accused on the run absconders

Directs anti-graft watchdog to nominate them in a separate reference

KARACHI: An accountability court ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Tuesday to declare Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani's wife, sons, daughters and other accused on the run, nominated in the assets beyond means reference filed against Durrani and others, absconders.

The court also directed the anti-graft watchdog to exclude the names of the accused on the run, including Durrani's family members, from the original reference and nominate them in a separate reference.

At the hearing, Durrani appeared before the court, which remarked that the provincial assembly speaker will be indicted at the next hearing on December 3.

Illegal land allotment case

Meanwhile, another accountability court rejected the plea challenging the maintainability of the reference, pertaining to the illegal allotment of land in Clifton, filed against Pak Sarzameen Party leader Mustafa Kamal and others.

NAB files reference against Agha Siraj in corruption case

Announcing the verdict on the plea filed by the accused, the court declared the reference as maintainable. It had postponed the verdict at the last hearing, directing all parties to attend the hearing held yesterday, on November 19, when the verdict would be announced.

The court adjourned the hearing of the reference till December 4.

In the reference filed by NAB, Kamal and others have been accused of illegally allotting 137 plots, spread over an area of 5,500 acres, located near Sea View.

Besides Kamal, former director general of the Sindh Building Control Authority, Iftikhar Qaimkhani, Fazlur Rehman, Mumtaz Haider, Nazir Zardari and others have been nominated in the reference.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2019.