Sharjeel Memon (PHOTO: FILE)
The defence lawyer stated that Memon's wife was in Dubai while the Sindh High Court (SHC) had issued a stay order on the accountability court's decision. He said that the SHC had also suspended the arrest warrants for Sadaf and others, adding that they would appear in court on December 14. The accountability court had previously ordered the issuance of non-bailable arrest warrants for the accused.
Memon has been charged with corruption to the amount of Rs2.27 billion. According to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), his wife and his mother, Zeenat Inam Memon, have also been nominated as accused in the case.
NAB files another reference against Sharjeel Memon
Other defendants include Zeeshan, Izhar Hussain, Muhammad Sohail, Saifullah Lohar, Agha Ahsan, Shaukat Ali Thebo, Wasim Akhtar Thebo and Kamran Gill. Solid evidence is reportedly available against Memon, his wife and his mother.
Land fraud
An accountability court rejected the appeal for acquittal of Adam Jokhio, accused of encroachment. Jokhio had surrendered to NAB and had agreed to a plea bargain of Rs2 billion, according to the investigation officer.
According to NAB, Jokhio defrauded members of the public by taking payments to book plots in residential projects for them in 1992. He did not hand over the allotted plots.
NAB initiates investigation against Sharjeel Memon
The court, refusing to immediately approve the plea bargain petition submitted by NAB, sent the suspect to jail on remand. The bench remarked that Jokhio should give the allotted land to the victims before it issued its decision on the plea bargain petition.
"The suspect has deceived the public on a large scale," stated the court. "Under what law do you want to release the suspect?"
Scores of people who had been deprived of their allotted plots were also present and the court ordered them to submit affidavits for the case. The court sought the NAB prosecutor and Jokhio's counsel on December 10 for arguments.
Court summons more witnesses in case against Memon
Arrest warrants issued
An accountability court has issued arrest warrants for two men, namely Pakistan State Oil managing director Naeem Yahya Mir and Amir Abbas, in a corruption reference against PSO and Hico officials.
The investigation officer informed the court that the process of blocking the NICs of the absconders is underway. The court has postponed the hearing till December 11. According to NAB, the other accused in the case include Nazeer Ahmed Jaffri, Zulfiqar Ali Jaffri and Akhtar Zameer Amir Abbasi. Zulfiqar and Nazar Ali Zaid were previously arrested in connection to the case in Islamabad and Gilgit-Baltistan respectively.
The accused had allegedly misused their authority in PSO and the national treasury reportedly suffered a loss of over Rs23 billion as a result of their collusion.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 8th, 2019.
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