ISLAMABAD: The Accountability Court on Monday sought a reply from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) regarding acquittal application filed by former premier Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani under the National Accountability (second amendment) Ordinance, 2021 in a corruption reference involving award of alleged illegal advertising contract to a private advertising agency against him and others.

Accountability Court-II judge Muhammad Azam Khan, while hearing the case asked the NAB to submit its reply with respect to acquittal application filed by Gilani till the next hearing to be held on April 19.

At the start of the hearing, Gilani filed an application before the court seeking acquittal of his client. The NAB prosecutor, Usman Masood, appeared before the court.

The other accused include Muhammad Saleem Baig, 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), and Syed Hassan Shako.

The NAB had filed a reference against Gilani and others in the Accountability Court for alleged misuse of authority in illegal publicity campaign, causing a loss of Rs128 million to the national exchequer. According to the NAB, in the 26th USF meeting dated December 28, 2011, the 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.

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 the national exchequer.

The Midas CEO, Inam Akbar, allegedly 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 the Ministry of IT nor from the USF and served bill for payment.

The media campaign was launched by Midas (Pvt.) Ltd, which was not on the panel of the USF, neither before nor afterwards. However, it was manipulated by accused, Riaz Asher Siddique, CEO USF, to place it on the panel in connivance with the accused, Muhammad Saleem, PIO, and the PID to legitimize the media campaign and facilitate payment of Rs128 million. There was no competition held for formally awarding the media campaign, which is totally against the PPRA rules and policy guidelines by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the PID.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022