ISLAMABAD: The Accountability Court, while hearing the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) scam against former Ogra chairman Tauqeer Sadiq and 10 others, on Thursday, adjourned the hearing of the case due to non-availability of original documents with the prosecution witness.

Accountability Court-I judge, Muhammad Bashir, while hearing the case, asked the prosecution witness Kamran Jamshed to produce original documents before it at the next hearing to be held on November 18. At the start of the hearing, the witness informed the court that he had forgot to bring original documents and those were in his office. At this, the court adjourned the hearing and directed him to bring the documents at the next hearing.

The other accused in the case include, Mir Kamal Farid Bijarani, Jawad Jameel, Abdul Rasheed Lond, Syed Arsalan Iqbal, Yousuf G Ansari, and Mansoor Muzaffar. Former Ogra chief Sadiq has been accused of misuse of powers to inflict Rs82 billion losses to the national exchequer.

Sadiq is the main accused in the mega Rs82 billion scam along with three co-accused - Muzaffer Ali, member gas, Mir Kamal Farid, member finance, and Jawad Jameel, staff officer to the Ogra chairman.

In the corruption reference, the NAB has alleged that Sadiq gave undue and illegal favours to private companies and individuals causing a loss of Rs82 billion to the national exchequer. It is further alleged that Sadiq and other co-accused in the case provided undue financial relief to private firms and individuals, and issued licenses for the CNG stations on fake or bogus documents.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021