Abeyance: Court suspends sentence of CDA director

Accountability court in Rawalpindi had awarded 10-year imprisonment to director CDA in October.

ISLAMABAD: A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Monday suspended the 10-year imprisonment sentence awarded by an accountability court to Junaid Karim, Director of Capital Development Authority (CDA). The court ordered his release on bail against surety bonds of Rs3 million.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry and Justice Sheikh Ahmad Farooq passed the order on the appeal of Karim.

An accountability court in Rawalpindi in October had awarded 10-year imprisonment to Karim and his co accused Shoukat Abbas and Jaffar Raza. The court had imposed Rs2 million fine each on the three men. However, the court acquitted another accused, Abdus Salam Baloch from the charges.

The three men were accused of involvement in the embezzlement of funds for improvement of water supply system in sectors G-6 and G-7 of CDA. Karim was a director in the CDA, Abbas was the contractor of the authority and Raza was an engineer. The acquitted, Baloch, was also an engineer in the  CDA. According to the reference, the alleged embezzlement occurred in 1994 while the inquiry initiated in 1996. NAB filed a reference in the matter in 2004.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 28^th, 2010.