KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) directed all remaining counsels to complete their arguments on bail petitions, who were arrested by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on charges of corruption, corrupt practices and abuse of authority for illegally appointing 940 employees in KPT. On November 01, 2018, a two-member bench, headed by Justice Iqbal Kalhoro heard the bail petition.
During the hearing, counsel for accused Rauf Akhtar Farooqi, former chairman Karachi Port Trust (KPT) has completed his arguments and said that his client is innocent and was falsely implicated in this case, he argued that Rauf Akhtar Farooqi has not appointed any persons illegally. After completion of his arguments, court directed other counsels to complete their arguments on November 13 and adjourned the hearing.
It needs to the mentioned here that on last date of hearing, Rashid A Rizvi, counsel for Muhammad Javed Hanif, former Chairman Karachi Port Trust (KPT) as has completed his arguments.
According to the NAB officials, Javed Hanif is involved in charges of corruption, corrupt practices and abuse of authority for illegally appointing 940 employees in KPT in connivance with [the MQM’s] Babar Ghauri, the then minister for ports and shipping, he further argued that the appointments were made in violation of KPT law, rules and regulations “without advertisement of vacancies, competitive process, age criteria, medical examination of appointees and in violation of basic formalities”.
A large number of those appointed had a criminal record in serious cases such as “terrorism, premeditated murder and robbery” and that the illegal appointments resulted in losses to the national exchequer to the tune of Rs2.8 billion, NAB said.
