ISLAMABAD: An accountability court on Friday granted a five-day physical remand of accused persons nominated in a corruption scam pertaining to the award of an illegal contract of a shuttle service in the Diplomatic Enclave.
The accused include Capital Development Authority (CDA) former member Brigadier (r) Muhammad Nusratullah, former CDA planning director general (DG) Sarwar Sindu, contractor Muhammad Hussain and other serving officials of the civic body.
Judge Muhammad Bashir conducted the hearing on the corruption reference filed against the above accused by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
During the proceeding, NAB’s prosecutor requested the court to grant 14-day physical remand of the accused of further investigation into the scam.
“The accused caused a heavy loss to the national kitty through their illegal practice,” he said.
The prosecutor contended that the former CDA officers were accused of awarding the contract of shuttle service to a company of their preference against low costs in violation of procedure.
However, the counsel for Brig (r) Nusratullah opposed NAB’s request and stated that his client was a heart patient who should not be subjected to a physical remand.
“The other accused Muhammad Hussain had also been attending the civic body’s inquiries in this regard,” he argued.
After hearing the arguments from both sides at large, the court granted five-day physical remand of all accused and directed the bureau to produce them again on November 14.
It may be mentioned here that the shuttle service contract was initially awarded for the 2007 to 2010 period, but was later extended to 2017. Besides awarding the contract to a favoured firm, the arrested individuals are also accused of providing five acres of CDA land to the firm’s owner at a throwaway annual rent amounting to a mere Rs 4,200.
