Corruption accused to be indicted at next hearing

An accountability court issued on Monday the copies of the reference pertaining to over Rs20 billion of corruption to the accused Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) officials who had acquired bails in the reference. The judge remarked that the indictment would be issued on the next hearing.

The court also issued the arrest warrant of an accused foreign citizen, Paul Merck, once again and adjourned the hearing till October 21.

According to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the reference was filed on the complaint of the PPL chairperson.

The accused PPL officials, including former managing director Asim Murtaza Khan, business development general manager Abdul Wahid and others, had misused their authority and made a deal with a foreign company on higher rates, causing a loss of over Rs20 billion to the national exchequer.

Accused sent on remand

Separately, an accountability court handed over two accused to the NAB for a 10-day physical remand in a case pertaining to the corruption of millions of rupees in the Sindh Local Government Department.

NAB officials presented the accused local government officials, Rehmatullah Sheikh and Manzoor Abbasi, in court, moving the judge to grant the accused's remand for interrogation.

The court accepted the NAB officials' request and handed over the accused to them for a 10-day physical remand.

According to the NAB, the accused had been arrested from Clifton on Sunday night.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 6^th, 2020.