SHC seeks NAB’s confirmation on Nisar Khoro’s arrest warrants

The Sindh High Court on Tuesday directed National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) prosecutor to seek instructions from the watchdog regarding the issuance of arrest warrants of senior PPP leader Nisar Khoro.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Muhammad Iqbal Kalhoro heard the petition filed by Khoro for his pre-arrest bail. The court had asked the prosecutor whether the bureau had issued warrants for Khoro’s arrest.

The prosecutor submitted that he did not know about the warrants. The inquiry officer of NAB who was present in the court was also not sure about the issuance of arrest warrants.

The NAB officer submitted that the inquiry against Khoro was still ongoing and sought time to complete the same.

The bench, while directing the prosecutor to make a definite statement on the next hearing regarding the warrants, also extended Khoro’s till for November 5, 2021. The court also asked the inquiry officer to submit a progress report on the same date.

Inquiry against Khoro pertains to the release of huge quantities of wheat to flour mills against unsecured guarantees when he held the portfolio of provincial food minister.

According to the initial inquiry, M/s Ranipur Flour Mills, M/s Khairpur Flour Mills and M/s Gopang Flour Mills procured 15,600, 14,120 and 14,024 metric tonnes of wheat from Sindh Food Department, respectively during the fiscal year 2016-2017. The wheat was given under 180 days credit policy.

However, the three flour mills failed to pay back the amount due over them within the stipulated time and the provincial food department sustained a loss of 1521.077 million rupees on account of the principal amount and an additional loss of 142.33 million rupees on account of mark-up.

After initiation of the inquiry, 1280.048 million rupees were recovered from the mills on account of the principal amount and 5.440 million rupees on account of mark-up. However, the mills still have to pay 241.028 million rupees on account of the principal amount and 136.89 million rupees on account of mark-up.

Besides Khoro, investigations are being conducted against the then provincial food secretary Sajjad Hussain Abbasi, the then director of provincial food department Muhammad Bachal Rahputo and mills’ owners/leaseholders Rehmaullah Shaikh, Abdul Jabar Shaikh and Waheed Ali Gopang.