NAB files reference against Gilani, others

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday filed a corruption reference against former Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani and others in the Accountability Court for alleged misuse of authority, causing a loss of Rs 128 million to the national exchequer.
According to a NAB official, the Bureau has filed the reference against Gilani and others including Muhammad Saleem, former Principal Information Officer (PIO), Press Information Department (PID), Farooq Awan, former Secretary Ministry of Information Technology (IT), and Riaz Asher Siddiqui, former Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Universal Services Fund (USF), for misuse of authority in illegal publicity campaign through Midas Pvt Ltd and attempt to cause loss to the national exchequer
According to NAB handout, the other names in the case include Inam Akbar, CEO Midas, Syed Hasan Shikoh, former Company Secretary USF, and Muhammad Hanif, former personal assistant to public relation officer IT, for misuse of authority in illegal publicity campaign through Midas Pvt Ltd and attempt to cause loss to national exchequer to the tune of Rs 128 million approximately.
He said in the 26th USF meeting dated December 28, 2011, accused Gilani, being then minister for IT and Chairman USF, directed to run a media campaign for highlighting the achievements of the USF.
Farooq Awan, former Secretary Ministry of IT, misused his authority in award of illegal publicity campaign through Midas Pvt Ltd against rules and attempted to cause loss to national exchequer.
The official said CEO Midas Inam Akbar violated the PID instructions and prescribed procedures regarding media campaigns and undertook the entire electronic media campaign without getting any written orders (release order) neither from Ministry of IT nor from USF and served bill for payment.
The media campaign was launched by Midas (Pvt) Ltd which was not on the panel of USF, neither before nor afterward. However, it was manipulated by accused Riaz Asher Siddique, CEO USF, to place it on the panel in connivance with accused Muhammad Saleem, PIO, and PID to legitimize the media campaign and facilitate payment of Rs 128 million.
There was no competition held for formally awarding the media campaign, which is totally against the PPRA rules and policy guidelines by M/o Information & Broadcasting and PID.
He said the accused persons in connivance with one another processed for an ex post facto approval by the board to legitimize the payment to Midas (Pvt) Ltd. However, due to timely cognizance by NAB, illegal payment was stopped to Midas.