Kidney Hills corruption case: Court reserves judgment against Mandviwalla, others

ISLAMABAD: The Accountability Court, while hearing Kidney Hills corruption case against Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Saleem Mandviwalla and others, on Tuesday reserved its judgment over the acquittal applications filed by the accused after the defence and the prosecution completed their arguments.

Accountability Court-I judge, Muhammad Bashir, while hearing Kidney Hills corruption reference regarding illegal allotment plots of Overseas Cooperative Housing Society Limited (OCHSL) (Kidney Hill) against Mandviwalla and others, fixed July 15 for the announcement of its reserved judgment regarding the acquittal applications filed by the accused under section 265-K, Code of Criminal Procedure CrPC under the National Accountability (second and third amendment) Ordinance 2021.

However, during the previous hearing, the defence counsels requested the court to allow them to conduct again arguments on the acquittal applications of their clients following the enactment of the recently-passed National Accountability (Amendment) Act, 2022 and the court approved the defence counsels request.

Sohail Arif, prosecutor National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Barrister Qasim Nawaz Abbasi, counsel for accused, appeared before the court. Defence counsels presented their arguments before the court regarding the acquittal applications of the accused under the National Accountability (Amendment) Act, 2022.

The court after hearing the arguments from both parties reserved the judgment on the acquittal applications of the accused till July 15.

The anti-graft body had filed the reference against Mandviwalla and others on January 13 before the Accountability Court. The reference was approved by the NAB’s executive board meeting (EBM) on December 29, 2021, which was presided over by former chairman NAB justice Javed Iqbal (retired).

Other accused include Nadeem Hakeem Mandviwala, Muhammad Ajaz Haroon, former secretary Overseas Cooperative Housing Society Karachi, and former chairman Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), Abdul Qadir Shiwani private person, Tariq Mehmood private person, Abdul Qayyum private person, and Khawaja Abdul Ghani Majeed.

According to the NAB, the accused on their involvement in an illegal allotment of plots in the OCHSL, Karachi and payment of those plots through fake bank accounts, incurred huge losses to the national exchequer.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022