A Division Bench of the Supreme Court, working here during the summer vacations, has put the National Accountability Bureau under notice to defend the legality of its reference against some officers of the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (Parc).
The notice issued on the appeal of a former Accounts Officer of the Parc and a member of the Purchasing Committee, Moazzam Rashid Dar, against his conviction by the accountability court for "abutment in the purchase of 15 vehicles at inflated prices."
The two-member vacation bench composed of Justice Hamid Ali Mirza and Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk issued orders after hearing Muhammad Akram Shaikh, who appeared for Dar under instructions from Raja Abdul Ghafoor, the Advocate on Record in the case.
Nearly a five-year old Reference implicated eight officials and also a representative of motor show room of Lahore but the case could only proceed against three officials as others had gone underground and could not be apprehended by the Bureau.
They were declared proclaimed offenders and convicted to various terms in jail and also cash fines. The latter included Dr C M Anwer, the Parc Chairman at that time.
The inflated prices, according to the NAB investigations had caused a loss of over Rs Six million. In addition, the then Finance Director of the Council, S A K Rehmani along with Moazzam Dar was also accused of misappropriating Rs 3.5 million by making payments to a "fake firm owned by Aslam Pervaiz Durrani," an Assistant Technical officer, who was also tried in his absence.
On an appeal later, the Lahore High Court acquitted Rehmani as well as Abdul Quddus, a Deputy Director and also a signatory to the cheque but upheld the conviction of Moazzam Rashid Dar.
In its judgement attached with the appeal, the Lahore High Court accepted the plea of Abdul Quddus that he had no concern with the Project Section of the Council and he had signed the cheque in his capacity as "an alternate second signatory."
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