KARACHI: An accountability court on Monday issued a notice to the prosecution on an application asking it to make National Accountability Bureau chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry an accused in a case pertaining to a multimillion land scam.

Former commerce secretary Suleman Ghani, the then chairman of the National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) Ayaz Khan Niazi along with directors and some other senior officials of the company and private persons have been charged with their alleged involvement in Rs900 million embezzlement in the purchase of 10 acres of a piece of land at an exorbitant price in Korangi for the NICL in violation of procurement rules in Aug 2009.

In the application, Nisar Ahmed Tarar, one of the defence lawyers, contended that the approval for the purchase of the land and its price was accorded by the board of directors (BoD) of the NICL, including the incumbent NAB chairman who was then additional secretary-I of commerce, in the NICL BoD 60th meeting held on Aug 3, 2009.

The counsel argued that the Federal Investigation Agency after usual investigation had filed a charge-sheet before an anti-corruption court against several officials and private persons including all members of the BoD except Mr Chaudhry.

The case was transferred to the accountability court in 2014, since NAB moved an application and submitted that as the apex court transferred the investigation of the case to NAB, the case be also sent to an accountability court.

The defence lawyer alleged that in his evidence before the trial court, Wapda chairman Zafar Mehmood, who is a complainant in the case as he was commerce secretary in 2010, admitted on a previous hearing about the alleged role of the NAB chairman in the case. However, he said, the IO had maliciously not made Mr Chaudhry an accused in the case along other members of the NICL BoD despite having an identical role, because he was the interior secretary when the case was being investigated.

The Sindh High Court, too, had taken serious notice of NAB chairman’s exclusion from the case during the hearing of bail applications moved by some accused persons, who were the then members of the BoD, the counsel argued.

He asked the court to issue a directive for the inclusion of the NAB chairman as accused in the case and face the trial.

Judge of the accountability court-III Munawar Sultana issued a notice to the NAB prosecutor for arguments on the application for Jan 29.

According to the prosecution, on an apex court directive, the then commerce secretary Zafar Mehmood, sent a written complaint to the FIA on Nov 16, 2010 asking the agency to probe all purchases of land at various places and on different times by the NICL and register a separate case regarding the prima-facie embezzlement of NICL funds in the transaction of 10-acre land purchased in Aug 2009 in Korangi for over Rs90 million per acre, which allegedly caused huge losses to the exchequer.

The chairman of the board of directors, investment committee of the NICL, sellers, valuators and others with the connivance of each other committed offences of criminal breach of trust, misconduct, forgery and cheating, it added.

The case was registered in 2010 under Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker merchant or agent), 420 (cheating and dishonesty inducing delivery of property), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 109 (abetment) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 5 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act-II, 1947 at the FIA Commercial Bank Circle, Karachi.

The name of the then federal commerce minister and senior PPP leader Makhdoom Amin Fahim was removed from the case at a previous hearing following his death.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2015