KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Friday issued notices to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and others on a petition filed by PPP leader Dr Asim Hussain seeking to restrain a trial court from framing charges against him in a corruption reference. Dr Asim, who has recently been made the chairman of the Sindh Higher Education Commission (HEC), faces charges of massive corruption during his tenure as the federal minister for petroleum and natural resources in the previous PPP government. He moved the petition in the high court, assailing the verdict of the accountability court that rejected his request to not frame charges against him and to quash the reference accusing him of embezzling Rs17 billion. In the petition, he submitted that the anti-graft watchdog filed the reference on the basis of fake documents. Hence, it would be unfair to frame charges against him in the case, he said. The PPP leader pleaded with the judges to restrain the accountability judge from framing charges against him and order cancellation of the reference. In the reference, Dr Asim Hussain has been accused of committing corruption of Rs17 billion in the award of illegal contracts for five gas fields in Sindh to Jamshoro Joint Venture Limited (JJVL). The PPP leader is also facing another reference for allegedly misusing his authority for getting plots allotted fraudulently, encroaching upon state land for expansion of his hospital, and laundering money, all of which caused a loss of Rs462 billion to the exchequer. Published in Daily Times, February 10th 2018.