An accountability court on Thursday adjourned the hearing of a reference of wilful default of Rs 610.926 million filed against Malik Ghulam Murtaza Khar, brother of the former Punjab governor Malik Ghulam Mustafa Khar, till May 28. The court re-opened the reference on the direction of the Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan. Earlier on October 2002, an accountability court had put on hold the reference owing to an appeal filed by Khar in the SC seeking stay orders against the hearing of the reference. The SC disposed of Khar’s appeal on April 7 and directed the accountability court to expedite the case.According to the details, Khar obtain a loan from the Habib Bank Limited (HBL) as director of Yahya Textile Mills Ltd and ultimately defaulted on the loan repayments. On June 16, 1994, the bank re-scheduled the loan but Khar again did not return it. HBL on May 28, 1995 re-scheduled the loan but Khar again failed to repay make repayments.Finally in October 1998, HBL forwarded the case to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) that arrested Khar on November 11, 1999. After completion of the inquiry, a reference was filed against Murtaza Khar in an accountability court.During the hearing, Khar got his bail orders and also obtained stay orders from the SC against announcement of the final judgement. The SC on April 7 disposed of the appeal filed by the accused and directed the accountability court to announce the judgement soon.Court fixes date to hear acquittal case: An accountability court on Thursday fixed May 25 to record the arguments on an application filed by former Punjab Assembly Member and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Suhail Zia Butt seeking his acquittal from the reference. The application has been filed under Section 265 K Cr Penal Code in which Butt submitted that he was innocent and had been implicated in the reference on a political basis. Butt was co-accused in a reference filed in 2001. He had been charged with embezzling Rs 2,000,000, during the purchase of Ahmad Mansion on The Mall for the National Industrial Co-operative Corporation.
