Skip to main content

Accountability court convicts 7 for misappropriation of funds in Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Housing Scheme case

An accountability court in Karachi on Wednesday convicted seven former government officials and private individuals, including the former chairman of the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Housing Scheme (SBBHS), over misappropriating approximately Rs240 million from the funds of the Sindh government-funded low-cost housing scheme.

The convicts — which include the chairman of the Benazir Housing Cell (BHC) at the time, Manzar Abbas, as well as past BHC deputy directors and others — were found guilty of misusing their official authority, corruption and corrupt practices.

Abbas was arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in 2015 along with other officials and citizens. The accountability bureau had filed a corruption reference against them alleging that they had misappropriated over Rs365 million of funds for SBBHS, which was to be launched in six districts of Sindh.

The prosecution claimed that the accused had issued fake calculations for the issuance of illegal cheques to M/s Fiza Social Welfare Organisation — which was engaged in building 2,400 cheap houses — against which funds were illegally released and misappropriated.

Accountability Court-IV's Justice Fareed Anwar Qazi today pronounced the verdict, which had been reserved earlier after recording evidence and final arguments from both sides.

Judge Qazi awarded the main accused, Abbas, and four others a sentence of five years of imprisonment, along with a fine of Rs15 million on each of them.

The judge also sentenced two of the other convicts with two-years imprisonment and ordered them to pay Rs6m each.



from The Dawn News - Home https://ift.tt/2IG8ewY
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Trump says he urged team to ‘slow’ COVID-19 testing

US President Donald Trump said Saturday he was encouraging health officials in his administration to slow down coronavirus testing, arguing that increased tests lead to more cases being discovered. The president has claimed falsely on several occasions that surges of COVID-19 in several states can be explained by greater numbers of diagnostic tests. At his first rally since the outbreak forced nationwide shutdowns in March, Trump told the crowd in Tulsa, Oklahoma that testing was a “double-edged sword.” The United States — which has more deaths and cases than any other country — has carried out more than 25 million coronavirus tests, placing it outside the top 20 countries in the world, per capita. “Here is the bad part: When you do testing to that extent, you are going to find more people, you will find more cases,” Trump argued. “So I said to my people ‘slow the testing down.’ They test and they test.” It was not clear from Trump’s tone if he was playing to the crowd, who ...
Post a Comment
Read more

IT ministry forms panel to review social media rules

ISLAMABAD: While uproar against the new rules to regulate social media continues from various segments of society, including parliamentarians, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and civil society, the information technology ministry on Friday formed a committee to review the rules. The federal cabinet approved the rules on Feb 11, but later after opposition from various quarters, including companies that manage different social media platforms, the prime minister announced that a fresh consultation process would be launched over the Citizens Protection (Against Online Harm) Rules 2020. The committee formed by the IT ministry is headed by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Chairman Amir Azeem Bajwa while its members are Eazaz Aslam Dar, additional secretary of IT; Tania Aidrus, member of the Strategic Reforms Imple­mentation Unit, Prime Minister Office; and Dr Arslan Khalid, focal person on digital media at the PM Office. Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Ma...
Post a Comment
Read more

IS confirms Baghdadi’s death, vows revenge

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.—AP BEIRUT: The Islamic State militant group confirmed the death of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a statement on Thursday and named his replacement as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi. “We mourn you ... commander of the faithful,” said Abu Hamza al-Quraishi — presented as the group’s new spokesman — in an audio statement. Baghdadi, who led IS since 2014 and was the world’s most wanted man, was killed in a US special forces raid in Syria’s province of Idlib on Sunday. The group also confirmed the killing in another raid the following day of the group’s previous spokesman Abu Hassan al-Muhajir. The statement said the group’s legislative and consultative body convened after the 48-year-old Iraqi-born jihadist chief’s death. “The Islamic State shura council convened immediately after confirming the martyrdom of Sheikh Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and the elders of the holy warriors agreed” on a replacement, said the seven-minute message. Little is known abou...
Post a Comment
Read more