Court reserves verdict in Durrani’s assets beyond means case

At the outset of the hearing, the witness presented the documents containing 10 years' records

KARACHI:

An accountability court reserved on Monday a verdict on the objections raised by the counsels representing the accused in an 'assets beyond means' reference against Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani and others.

Durrani, co-accused others and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) witness from Election Commission of Pakistan, Azhar Hussain appeared before the court.

At the outset of the hearing, Hussain presented the documents containing 10 years' records, 2008-2018, before the court. At this, the accused's counsels raised an objection, maintaining that the witness didn't have the authority to submit these documents as he wasn't directly linked with them [documents].

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They contended that only the person who is authoritative for submitting the documents can be made a witness. The court reserved a verdict on the objection and adjourned the hearing till August 9.

NAB had filed a reference against the PPP leader, his family members and others for allegedly accumulating assets worth Rs1.6 billion through illegal means. Durrani was unable to account for a difference of Rs1.6b between his declared income from 1985 to 2018.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2021.