Court adjourns hearing of corruption case against Dr Asim till Feb 14

F.P. Report

KARACHI: An accountability court of Karachi on Thursday adjourned hearing of Rs462 billion corruption case against former petroleum minister Dr Asim Hussain and others till February 14.

The court has ordered the witness to present original documents on the next hearing.

During the court proceeding, lawyers of the former minister objected on the documents presented by the witness saying that those were counterfeited.

On January 20, witness Wasiq Sheikh apprised the accountability court that he had received a letter from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), when he used to work in Dr Asim’s hospital as the general manager finance, seeking details of the hospital’s bank accounts and properties.

He said he had collected all the records and submitted to the anti-graft body.

Corruption charges against Dr. Asim

An accountability court in 2017 had indicted Dr Hussain, ex-petroleum secretary Ejaz Chaudhry and others in an over Rs 460 billion corruption reference.

Dr Hussain was taken into custody on August 26, 2015 by Rangers on different corruption charges.

After 19 months, his bail plea was referred to a referee judge for final orders. The referee judge, Justice Aftab Ahmed Gorar, granted bail to the accused earlier this year.

Dr Asim faced charges of misusing his authority for getting plots allotted fraudulently and encroaching upon state land for expansion of Dr Ziauddin Hospital/Trust, money laundering, illegal gains, kickbacks, commission through fertiliser cartel for illegal curtailment of gas for exploitative price hike and defrauding people in the name of charity hospital.