ISLAMABAD: The accountability court has extended the remand of four accused persons in the Ministry of Commerce Employees Cooperative Housing Society (MOCECHS) corruption case for another seven days.
The four accused including MOCECHS President Rana Ghulam Farid, MOCECHS Ex-Vice President/General Secretary Syed Amir Hussain Shah, MOCECHS General Secretary Mazhar Hussain and MOCECHS Ex-Executive Member Development Committee Muhammad Akram Awan were produced in the accountability court by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officials after completion of a previous remand period.
NAB requested the court for an extension in the remand which was accepted by the accountability court judge.
Accused Rana Ghulam Farid and co-accused Mazhar Hussain being president and general secretary of the society remained involved in illegal allotment of plots without approval of master plan, sale/transfer of fake files, allotments on bogus cheques, double allotment of plots and awarding of illegal development contracts to five firms without tendering and thus causing a huge loss to the public.
Furthermore, NAB also decided to investigate four private construction firms for obtaining controversial contracts from the MOCECHS management. These include MAC Construction, Al-Khalil Construction, Ayan & Company and Capital Venture Pvt Ltd.
In the previous remand, NAB had conducted search operations for records of membership files and assets of the accused.
During physical custody, accused Rana Ghulam Farid revealed that he had hidden important documents including a record of deposit slips of various membership files, membership transfer letters, and copies of CNICs of members at his and his partners’ residences. The documents were seized as per law.
Furthermore, during a raid at Mazhar Hussain’s house, the records of sale and purchase of memberships as well as, copies of various memberships were also recovered.
