Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to file its reply by Thursday on a plea filed by Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) former federal minister for petroleum and natural resources Dr Asim Hussain seeking removal of his name from the Exit Control List (ECL) on medical grounds.

A two-member Supreme Court bench of Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Qazi Faez Isa accepted the request of Sardar Latif Khan Khosa, senior counsel for Dr Asim Hussain, seeking to hear the plea again on Thursday, with directions to the NAB to furnish its response over the plea till Thursday.

In his arguments, Latif Khosa contended that his client was undergoing medical treatment abroad, adding that he was scheduled to go abroad on November 9 to get his treatment; however, he could not move being his name on the ECL.

He stated that now he was scheduled to go abroad on November 21 to get treatment, thus the NAB may be directed to remove his name from the ECL.

He stated that his client had earlier gone abroad on the court’s permission and came back within a month following the court’s orders.

He requested the court to order NAB to remove his name from the ECL until he was undergoing treatment, adding that when his health would turn to normalcy, the court might again order putting his name on the ECL.

In March 2017, the Sindh High Court had granted bail to Dr Asim in two corruption references filed by the NAB against him.

On the same day, an anti-terrorism court issued his release order in a case relating to the alleged treatment of terrorists at Ziauddin Hospital, where the accused was the deputy managing director.

The NAB had been pursuing Dr Asim Hussain on charges that being the former petroleum minister, he deprived the state exchequer of Rs 462.5 billion between 2010 and 2013 – Rs 450 billion through a fertiliser scam, Rs 9.5 billion through land fraud and Rs 3 billion through money laundering. He was eventually released from prison on March 31, 2017, after 19 months in detention.

The NAB had filed a reference against Dr Asim along with top officials of the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) and the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) over misuse of their authority while award contracts of five gas fields to privately managed Jamshoro Joint Venture Limited (JJVL). Besides, the NAB had also filed another reference against Dr Asim Hussain and others in an accountability court for alleged corruption. He was taken into custody by Sindh Ranger in August 2015.

Published in Daily Times, November 14^th 2017.