Court rejects Asim Hussain’s acquittal plea

Ex-minister is accused of Rs17b corruption in awarding gas contracts

KARACHI:

An accountability court in Karachi on Saturday rejected PPP leader and former petroleum minister Dr Asim Hussain's plea for acquittal in the reference related to the corruption of Rs17 billion.

The court held a reference hearing against Hussain and others related to the corruption.

Hussain and other accused appeared in the court. The court pronounced the decision on the acquittal plea filed by the PPP leader.

The court rejected Hussain’s acquittal plea. According to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Hussain and others are accused of corruption of Rs17 billion in connection with gas contracts.

In Feb 2018, the accountability court indicted Hussain and eight others in a reference regarding embezzlement of Rs17 billion in award of illegal contracts of five gas fields in Sindh to Jamshoro Joint Venture Limited.

The indicted suspects included Basharat Mirza, Jamil Ansari, Sui Southern Gas Company MD Zohair Siddiqui, Malik Usman, Khalid Rehman and Shoaib Warsi.

In August 2015, the former petroleum minister was detained during a raid at the Higher Education Commission office in the Clifton area over alleged embezzlement.

He was accused of concealing assets, granting illegal allotments, land grabbing, misuse of authority, fraud and giving illegal contracts during his tenure in SSGC and laundering money.