KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) warned NAB prosecutor, if he does not come with preparation, than court will summon DG NAB for arguments on bail petition filed by Muhammad Javed Hanif, Rauf Akhtar Farooq, former chairmen Karachi Port Trust (KPT) and others, who were involved in a case of corruption and abuse of authority for illegally appointing 940 employees in KPT.
On July 29, 2018 a two-member bench headed by Justice Muhammad Iqbal Kalhoro heard the matter.
During the hearing, counsels for the remaining applicants completed their arguments and stated that their clients were falsely implicated in this case and prosecution has not provided any single evidence against them before trial court, therefore, court may confirm their interim bail which was granted by this court.
However, during the hearing, prosecutor for NAB sought time for preparation and arguments on these bail petitions. The court accepted NAB prosecutor’s plead and adjourned the matter for December 5, 2018.
It needs to be mentioned here that Muhammad Javed Hanif, former chairman of Karachi Port Trust (KPT), is confined in Central Jail Karachi on judicial remand.
According to the NAB officials, Javed Hanif is involved in charges of corruption 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.
