Daily Times

KARACHI: An accountability court adjourned on Saturday the hearing of two corruption references against Dr Asim Hussain and others.

Dr Asim, former petroleum minister and close aide of former president Aisf Zardar, and other his accomplices have been booked on charges of fraudulently awarding gas contracts, misusing his authority to get land allotted illegally, encroaching upon the state land for expansion of Dr Ziauddin Hospital, money laundering and receiving kickbacks.

At the outset, the accountability court-VI was informed that Dr Asim could not be produced before it due to his ill health condition. He had been admitted to National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases on the night of Dec 19 due to having heart trouble.

The judge was further told that the ECG and other medical tests of Dr Asim were conducted. He was under the surveillance round the clock.

The Court adjourned the hearing till Jan 07.

Dr Asim Hussain and his accomplices are facing around Rs17 billion corruption reference for illegally awarding multi-billion gas processing contracts to Jamshoro Joint Venture Limited.

According to the NAB prosecutor, the accused allowed the JJVL to process gas at different gas fields without conducting an open auction, signing agreements and memorandums of understanding as required by law, thus causing a loss of Rs17.4 billion to the national exchequer.

Other accused included SSGC managing director Khalid Rehman and former officials Zuhair Siddiqui, Azeem Iqbal, Shoaib Warsi, Yusuf Jamil Ansari and Malik Usman, OGDCL former managing director Basharat Mirza and official, Zahid Bakhtiar and JJVL chief executive officer, Iqbal Z Ahmed.

Meanwhile, the same court adjourned Rs462 billion corruption reference after recording statement of a prosecution witness.

Dr Asim was accused of depriving the national exchequer of Rs462 billion by misusing his authority to get allotted land illegally, encroaching upon the state land for expansion of Dr Ziauddin Hospital, money laundering and receiving kickbacks.

Other accused who are faces charges are former petroleum secretary Muhammad Ejaz Chaudhry, administrator of Ziauddin Medical Centre, Dubai Abdul Hameed, former directors of the Karachi Development Authority Syed Athar Hussain and Masod Haider and Karachi Dock Labour Board’s former chief executive officer Safdar Hussain.