KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) directed counsel for petitioner and NAB to submit their para-wise comments on a post-arrest bail filed by ex-chairman KPT Rauf Akhtar Farooqi who was booked in a case of charges of corruption, corrupt practices and abuse of authority for illegally appointing 940 employees in KPT.
On March 8, 2019, a two-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M Shaikh was hearing the petition.
During the hearing, counsel for Rauf Akhtar Farooqi argued that his client is innocent and till date NAB officials have not filed single document against him, he was arrested from Supreme Court of Islamabad after rejecting his pre-arrest bail. The counsel further argued that his client never involved in any illegal appointment or amazement, therefore, court may grant his post-arrest bail till final judgment.
According to the prosecution, Rauf Akhtar Farooqi, former chairman Karachi Port Trust (KPT) and others are involved in charges of corruption, corrupt practices and abuse of authority for illegally appointing 940 employees in KPT in connivance with MQM’s Babar Ghauri, the then minister for ports and shipping.
Investigation officer of NAB has informed the court that 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, NAB said.
