Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: A Special Court Central of Islamabad on Friday pronounced 30-year imprisonment along with 40 million rupees fine to a central accused Ahmed Faiz involved in the Hajj corruption case.

Central Court Judge Malik Nazir announced the verdict in the mega scam in the presence of the accused here.

The accused Ahmed Faiz was the front man of the former Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Hamid Saeed Kazmi and former Director General (DG) Rao Shakeel.

It may be mentioned here that a judge of the special court central, Malik Nazir Ahmed, convicted on June 3, 2016 Kazmi, former joint secretary of the ministry of religious affairs, Aftabul Islam Raja and director general Rao Shakeel of having committed Rs 8.8 billion corruption in arrangements for Haj in 2009.

The court had already awarded 16-year imprisonment to Kazmi and Raja and also imposed a Rs140.7 million fine on each of them. Besides it sentenced Shakeel to 40-year imprisonment and imposed a Rs150.3m fine on him. Shakeel has also challenged the verdict of the special court in the IHC.

In 2012, the Supreme Court took suo moto notice of mismanagement in arrangements for Haj in 2009 and the then PPP government tasked the Federal Investigation Agency with investigating into allegations of corruption.

A case was registered leading to Kazmi’s arrest on March 15, 2011. He also spent nearly two years in prison over charges of irregularities committed in 2009.

The three accused were indicted on the charges of corruption in the Haj case on May 30, 2012.

According to the charge-sheet, Kazmi, Shakeel Raja and Faiz were indicted on the charges of fraud, cheating, misuse of authority and causing losses to the national exchequer and people. Specifically, they were accused of taking a substandard building on an exorbitant rent (for housing pilgrims in Makkah) and receiving kickbacks in the process.

The former religious minister had also approached the IHC against the punishment and stated that the prosecution produced 56 witnesses in the trial court but none of them uttered even a single word against him. Besides, no evidence of the receipt of kickbacks was placed on record.

However, this appeal was also dismissed by the IHC bench later.