Yousuf Raza Gilani’s indictment deferred till Feb 13 in graft case

An Accountability Court on Thursday deferred indictment of former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and other accused in a graft case related to awarding alleged illegal advertisement contract.

Accountability Judge Azam Khan resumed the hearing of the case as Ex-PM Yousuf Raza Gilani didn’t show up before the court.

The judge deferred indictment of the accused owing to the absence of the PPP leader and other accused.

The judge decided to frame charges against them on the next hearing slated for Feb 13.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) approved filing corruption references against former PM Yousuf Raza Gilani and others for their alleged involvement in illegally awarding an advertising contract in violation of Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules.

The other accused in the case included former secretary Information Technology Farooq Awan, former principal information officer Muhammad Saleem, Syed Hassan Sheikh, Inam Akbar, and other officials of the Ministry of Information Technology.

They allegedly misused their authority which caused a loss of Rs128.07 million to the national exchequer.

Yesterday, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Khawaja Saad Rafique and his brother Khawaja Salman Rafique produced before accountability court in Paragon Housing Scam.

The court extended the judicial remand of Khawaja brothers till 11th February.

Strict security arrangements made to avoid any untoward incident.

NAB Lahore had approved filing of a reference against the Khawaja brothers and Nadeem Zia for the alleged corruption.

Qaiser Amin Butt, the main accused in the case, also included in the inquiry initiated by the NAB.

Qaiser Amin Butt, arrested in November last year.

Later, he agreed to turn approver against Khawaja brothers and Nadeem Zia.

On December 11, 2018, Khawaja brothers detained by the accountability watchdog after the Lahore High Court (LHC) rejected their bail plea.