Illegal award of government ads: Indictment of ex-PM Gilani, others deferred till February 13

The Accountability Court on Thursday deferred the indictment of former Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani and others till February 13 in a case pertaining to alleged illegal award of government advertisement contracts, which had caused a loss of Rs 128 million to national exchequer.

The Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Azam Khan while hearing the case deferred the indictment of the accused persons due to absence of Gilani. The court decided to indict all the accused on February 13 and issued them directives to ensure their presence during the next hearing.

The NAB had filed the corruption reference on September 7, 2018 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 misusing authority in illegal publicity campaign through Midas Pvt Ltd and causing loss to national exchequer.

The other accused included Inam Akbar, CEO Midas, Syed Hasan Shikoh, former company secretary USF, and Muhammad Hanif, former personal assistant to public relations officer IT. The NAB said that in the 26th USF meeting, dated December 28, 2011, accused Gilani, being then minister in-charge for IT and chairman USF, directed to run a media campaign for highlighting the achievements of the USF.

There was no competition held for formally awarding the media campaign, which is totally against the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules and policy guidelines by Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and PID. The NAB 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.