ISLAMABAD: The proceeding of the indictment of Dr Shahid Masood and other co-accused in the Pakistan Television (PTV) corruption case was deferred on Thursday.
During the hearing, Dr Shahid Masood challenged the sections that were added up in the Challan while his counsel said that sections that were added in the challan cannot be applied.
The court reserved the verdict upon the objections and adjourned the hearing till February 12.
Earlier on January 9, Dr Shahid Masood had submitted a petition in the Supreme Court (SC) to seek bail in a case regarding embezzlement of Rs38 million during his tenure as the managing director and chairman of Pakistan Television (PTV).
In his petition, he had also stated that the case had been shut down by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in the past and then reopened in 2015. “Suspects Kashif Rabbani, Fawad Shabbir and Roshan Gilani are all facing trial and have also started paying back the embezzled amount,” he had said.
The anchorperson was arrested from the court by FIA on December 23, 2018, after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) dismissed his petition. Masood, in his petition to the apex court, added that IHC had rejected his bail without paying any heed to the facts of the case as his name was not included in the first investigation report (FIR) of the case.
Masood is accused of involvement in the embezzlement of Rs37 million in acquiring Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) media rights in 2008 during his tenure as the managing editor and chairman of the state-run broadcaster. Reportedly, the agreement was carried out with a fake company — M/s International Sports Solution (ISS) and the investigators claim that funds were also released, causing the loss of millions of dollars to PTV as the state-run broadcaster failed to acquire PCB media rights from 2008 to 2013.