KARACHI: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Karachi arrested former Karachi Port Trust (KPT) chairman Muhammad Javed Hanif from his residence on Tuesday.
“The accused was wanted in an investigation against officers of KPT on 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,” the press release issued by NAB stated.
The bureau said 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”.
The bureau said that 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 accused will be produced before Accountability Court Karachi for physical remand, the bureau stated.