CNICs of absconding suspects blocked by interior ministry, court told

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The National Accountability Bureau on Tuesday informed an accountability court that the CNICs of a dozen absconding suspects in a Rs1.6 billion graft case, involving Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani, had been blocked.The accountability court-IV on a previous hearing had issued non-bailable warrants for the arrests of Durrani’s wife Naheed, his daughters Sonya, Shahana, Sara and Sanam, son Agha Shahbaz, Muhammad Irfan, Gulbahar Baloch, Shakeel Soomro, Syed Muhammad Shah, Ghulam Murtaza and Munawar Ali.The NAB investigation officer had told the court that the named members of the Durrani family had gone to the US and the UAE, as per their travel history obtained through the Federal Investigation Agency, while the rest were into hiding at an undisclosed location.NAB had filed the reference against Durrani and 19 people, including the absconders, in May earlier this year.It maintained that the speaker had accumulated assets beyond his income and could not account for a difference of Rs1,610,669,528 between his declared total income from 1985 to 2018 and the assets in his, his family, dependants and benamidars names. It added that the fortune was made out of kickbacks, embezzlement of public funds and other illegal means.During the hearing, Durrani was presented by the jail authorities while seven others suspects -- his brother Agha Masihuddin, Zulfiqar Ali Dahar, Gulzar Ahmed, Tufail Ahmed Shaikh, Mitha Khan, Shamshad Khatoon and Aslam Langah, who are on bail -- also appeared in the court.The hearing got adjourned until November 19 without any proceedings as the judge was not available, while NAB submitted a compliance report with the court office, which read that the CNICs of the absconding suspects were blocked through the interior ministry.Durrani was arrested by NAB in February from a hotel in Islamabad. He is currently under judicial custody and his office at the Sindh Assembly has been declared sub-jail. Earlier, he had been interned in the Landhi jail.

from The News International - Karachi https://ift.tt/2rhFLVY
The News International - Karachi