KARACHI: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Court directed NAB authorities to produce witnesses and come after full preparation to present arguments against suspects Muhammad Javed Hanif, Rauf Akhtar Farooqi, former chairmen of Karachi Port Trust (KPT) and others, who are involved in a case of corruption and abuse of authority for illegally appointing 940 employees in KPT.
On February 6, 2019, above-mentioned suspects were produced before the court and Saifullah Khan, Deputy Sectary Ports and Shipping also appeared as prosecution witness, however, NAB prosecutor sought time for preparation, therefore, court granted time and directed him to come with full preparation on next date of hearing.
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.
