Accountability court: Naeem remanded for seven days

‘Naeem allowed to appear before commission when summoned’.

LAHORE: An accountability court on Monday handed over Dr Majid Naeem, former IT consultant for the Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education of the Punjab, to the National Accountability Bureau for seven days so they can investigate charges that he misappropriated millions of rupees from the Punjab University while he was principal of the PU College of Information Technology.

Judge Ahmed Nawaz Ranjha also directed NAB, on the defence counsel’s request, to have Naeem checked at Shaikh Zayed Hospital. The defence counsel claimed that NAB had arrested his client to prevent him appearing for hearings of a judicial commission investigating the reasons for the massive errors in the intermediate part 1 exam results. Prosecutor Tariq Qureshi denied this, saying Naeem could appear before the judicial commission whenever he was summoned.

Naeem’s lawyer then told the court that he was not being allowed to meet with his relatives or lawyers. The NAB lawyer denied this too.

Naeem is accused of abusing his authority and drawing Rs2,797,850 from Punjab University’s funds for personal use through corrupt, dishonest and illegal means. He had sought acquittal from the charge, but his plea was dismissed on March 15.

According to NAB, Naeem was later dismissed from the University of Engineering and Technology Lahore and Government College University Lahore for alleged corruption.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 15^th, 2011.