The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday allowed Director of Jamshoro Joint Venture Limited (JJLV) Iqbal Z Ahmed, co-accused in Rs 17.34 million corruption reference against Dr Asim Hussain and others, to go abroad for his business appointments.
Ahmed was nominated in the corruption reference along with Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader and former petroleum minister Dr Asim Hussain, former officials of Oil & Gas Company Limited (OGDC) Basharat Mirza, Zahid Bakhtiar and Yousuf Ansari. The reference was filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) pertaining to award of illegal gas contracts to a private company.
Ahmed through his counsel filed an appeal before the SHC seeking permission to go abroad to do his business. “Ahmed has to attend meetings in Dubai and Singapore from 5th to 18th August. He will come back to country after completing his official assignments; therefore, he should be allowed to go out of the country,” the counsel prayed the court.
After hearing the arguments, the SHC bench allowed him to go abroad and directed him to submit the surety bonds of Rs 30,00,000.
On 5th March this year, the NAB had filed a reference alleging that during Dr Asim’s tenure as a petroleum minister, a private company was allowed to process gas from five fields in lower Sindh without conducting an open auction, incurring a huge loss of Rs 17.34 billion to the national exchequer.
