Accountability courts dispose of most high-profile corruption cases

Zardari, Sharif family exonerated in two cases, Raja Pervez Ashraf, others indicted.

ISLAMABAD:

The capital’s accountability courts may be credited with disposing of some high profile cases last year, yet many cases are still pending for adjudication.

In 2014, the Islamabad accountability court acquitted former president Asif Ali Zardari in three corruption references filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) 17 years ago.

Zardari, who is also co- chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), was facing five corruption references, however, the court acquitted him in three — the polo ground scam, ARY graft case and the Ursus tractors’ case.

Zardari is still facing two references — SGS and Contecna — and on December 22 last year, the court rejected his acquittal plea and the cases have been fixed for January 8 for further hearing.

In the polo ground reference, Zardari was facing charges of illegally constructing a polo ground and other ancillary works at the Prime Minister’s House when his late wife Benazir Bhutto was the prime minister.  In the Ursus tractors’ reference, Zardari was accused of misappropriation in the purchase of 5,900 Russian and Polish tractors.

The second high profile case was also adjudicated on September 20 last year, when an accountability court in Rawalpindi acquitted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in two corruption references — Hudaibia Paper Mills and Raiwind Assets — after the judge rejected the NAB’s application seeking revival of the over a decade-old corruption references.

Nawaz Sharif, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, their late father Mian Muhammad Sharif, their mother Shamim Akhtar, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Nawaz’s wife Kulsoom Nawaz, Hamza Shehbaz, Hussain Nawaz, Mian Abbas Sharif, Sabiha Abbas, Maryam Safdar and Hudaibia Paper Mills’ company secretary Syed Ajmal Sibtain had been named in the references.

On April 4, 2001, while Sharifs were in exile in Saudi Arabia, proceedings into the two references were adjourned indefinitely. In 2011, the NAB filed an application to revive the cases, but the Lahore High Court dismissed the request in May last year.

The Hudaibia Paper Mills reference pertained to money deposited in banks in other peoples’ name allegedly by the Sharif family while the Raiwind Assets reference charged them of building palatial houses on vast tracts of land using finances disproportionate to their declared sources of income.

Legal experts believe that the cases were politically-motivated as the NAB failed to provide solid evidence to prove charges.

Pending cases

Three corruption references — Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra), Rental Power Projects (RPP) and Modaraba scandal cases — are still pending in accountability courts.

An accountability court had indicted former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf Ogra chairman Tauqeer Sadiq, stockbroker Aqeel Karim Dhedhi and others in the Rs76.6 billion Ogra scam. Sadiq obtained bail from the Islamabad High Court last year and hearing into the case has seen no progress since then.

In February 2013, the NAB approved the case of Piranghaib, Multan, and Techno Engineering Services Sahuwal, Sialkot, for alleged corruption, corrupt practices and misuse of authority in awarding RPP contracts. Raja Pervez Ashraf was charged with concealing facts in the RPP case and causing a loss of $60 million to the national exchequer.

The third largest Modaraba scandal case — involving a fraud of Rs7 billion — is still pending in the accountability court. The NAB had filed a reference in the court against Asif Javed alias Maulana Ibrahim, the main accused in this case, Mufti Osama and nine other accused on charges of corruption, corrupt practices and cheating the public at large in a ploy of Islamic mode of investment. The main accused are still at large and the NAB authorities have failed to arrest them.

According to sources, the accused are hiding in different countries and the proceedings into the cases will be delayed further unless the accused are arrested.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 4^th, 2015.