Karachi: An accountability Court on Saturday adjourned the hearing of Rs5 billion corruption reference against former Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon and others by September 16, 2017. The court heard the NAB reference filed against the former minister and others for misuse of power and authority and embezzlement in distribution of government advertisements, he could not be indicted in the case today. An accused Asim Amir submitted an application in the court pleading it to direct provincial and federal Information Ministry officials, media commission members and other to appear before the court and inform it about the rates of advertisement. The court issued notice to Nab on the application of the accused. Sharjeel Memon and others accused have been charged in the NAB reference of misusing power and authority and embezzlement in distribution of government advertisements amounting to Rs 5billion. Information Department officials including Zulfiqar Ali Shalwani, Mansoor Ahmed and others are co-accused in the Rs5 billion corruption case. According to the NAB reference, investigation was conducted regarding corruption and corrupt practices in the advertisement awareness campaigns on TV and FM channels between July 2013 and June 2015 and it was found that the accused acted in connivance with each other resulting in a loss of Rs3,279,177,029 to the national exchequer. It was revealed in the investigation that an amount of Rs5,766,479,766 was paid to seven advertisement agencies in violation of the Sindh Public Procurement Rules 2010. The reference alleged that the former information minister illegally approved releasing of official advertisements to electronic media for awareness campaigns through the so-called pre-qualified advertising agencies without due competition. It was alleged that Sharjeel Memon issued contracts to favourite advertising agencies at exorbitant rates even without confirming the market rates. Besides, the former information minister directly approved the media plan submitted by the advertising agencies. Besides the former information minister, former provincial information secretary Zulfiqar Ali Shalwani, deputy directors of information department Anita Baloch, Mansoor Ahmed Rajput and Mohammed Yousuf Kaboro, were among the 17 accused cited in the reference. It was alleged that advertising agencies suppressed the invoices issued by the media and showed much higher amounts, while as per settled practice advertising agencies were entitled to get only 15 per cent agency commission against the total bill. Published in Daily Times, August 20th 2017.