Sugarcane subsidy to growers: AC extends judicial remand of accused till March 3

The Accountability Court hearing multi-billion-rupee fake bank accounts cases, on Tuesday, extended the judicial remand of the accused in the corruption reference pertaining to misappropriation of subsidy given to sugarcane growers till March 3rd.

The Accountability Court judge hearing the case inquired about the National Accountability Bureau (NAB)'s reply with respect to acquittal applications of two accused including Salman Younus and Mustafa Zulqarnain.

The NAB prosecutor, Sohail Arif, told the court that the NAB was working over its reply regarding the acquittal applications. The NAB will submit its reply as soon as it gets ready, he said.

At the previous hearing, both the accused filed their acquittal applications before the court through their counsel in the wake of the NAB Amendment Ordinance, 2019.

Accused Omni Group Director Abdul Ghani Majeed, Pakistan Stock Exchange Chairperson Hussain Lawai, Khawaja Salman Younis, a close relative of the Omni Group chairman, and others appeared before the court.

The NAB prosecutor submitted its report about accused, Nimr Majeed, and Manahil Majeed, who have fled abroad. When the judge asked about their whereabouts, the investigation officer said that according to the record the two accused were in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). About Anwar Majeed, the NAB prosecutor told the court that Majeed's health condition was not allowing them to shift him to Islamabad from Karachi in an air ambulance. Majeed is under treatment in Karachi since August 2018.

The court extended the judicial remand of the accused till March 3rd.

The NAB has nominated 40 accused in the reference. The bureau filed the reference against the accused over charges of embezzlement of millions of rupees of funds issued by the Sindh government to sugar mills as a subsidy for onward payment to the sugarcane farmers.

The Sindh government through the provincial cane commissioner paid Rs3.9 billion to various sugar mills for onward payment to genuine sugarcane growers as subsidy on account of supply of sugarcane for the season 2014-2015. An investigation was conducted against eight sugar mills owned by Omni Group of Anwar Majeed and his four sons, Abdul Ghani Majeed, Nimr Majeed, Mustafa Zulqarnain Majeed, and Ali Kamal Majeed.

The investigations revealed that out of Rs728.18 million in subsidies granted to eight sugar mills of the Omni Group, an amount of Rs346 million had been allegedly misappropriated in connivance with senior employees by showing their low-paid staff as sugarcane growers.