KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) dismissed bail petitions of suspects Muhammad Javed Hanif, Rauf Akhtar Farooqi, former chairmen of Karachi Port Trust (KPT) and others, who were arrested in a case of corruption and abuse of authority for illegally appointing 940 employees in KPT.
On December 14, 2018, court announced the verdict which was reserved on December 4, 2018. The court dismissed after-arrest bail of suspects Javed Hanif, Rauf Akhtar Farooqi, Mahmood Sharif and others; however, the court granted bail to suspect namely Muhammad Iqbal and Ameer Ali Brohi. A two-member bench headed by Justice Muhammad Iqbal Kalhoro heard the matter.
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During the hearing, counsel for petitioners Javad Hanif, Rauf Akhtar Farooqi, Mahmood Sharif, Ameer Ali Barohi, Haji Muhammad Sapras and special prosecutor of NAB completed their arguments.
It needs to be mentioned here that Muhammad Javed Hanif, former Karachi Port Trust (KPT) chairman is confined in Central Jail 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 MQM London’s Babar Ghauri, the then minister for ports and shipping. The appointments were made in violation of KPT law, rules and regulations “without advertisement of vacancies, competitive process, age criteria, and 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, the NAB officials added.
