KARACHI: An accountability court dismissed on Monday an application of former petroleum minister and Pakistan Peoples Party leader Dr Asim Hussain seeking acquittal in a seven-year-old Rs460 billion graft reference.

Dr Asim — a close aide to former president Asif Ali Zardari — along with others, has been facing trial in a case pertaining to misusing his authority as the federal petroleum minister to get plots allotted fraudulently and also encroaching upon state land for expansion of his Dr Ziauddin Hospital/Trust, money laundering, illegal gains, kickbacks, commission through fertiliser cartel for illegal curtailment of gas for exploitative price hike, etc.

On Monday, Accounta­bility Court-IV Judge Suresh Kumar pronounced his order reserved after hearing arguments from both sides.

The judge observed that the applicant failed to make out a case for his acquittal in the present reference under Section 265-K (power of Court to acquit accused at any stage) of the Criminal Procedure Code since the trial was at an important state of recording testimonies of the accused persons, including the applicant himself.

While clarifying that its observations would not prejudice the right of either party, the judge dismissed the acquittal plea of Dr Hussain.

The case has been coming up for recording the testimonies of the accused persons, as required under Section 342 of the CrPC, as the trial heads towards its conclusion, but the testimony of none of the accused has so far been recorded.

In the acquittal plea, defence counsel Amir Raza Naqvi had argued that the prosecution miserably failed to prove its case against Dr Hussain, who had consistently stated that his prosecution was a result of ulterior and malafide intentions and some designs not approved by law.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2023