ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senator Saleem Mandviwalla and others obtained relief from the Accountability Court on Wednesday after the court sent the Kidney Hills corruption case against them back to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) due to amendment in the NAB law.

Accountability Court-I judge Muhammad Bashir, while announcing its reserved judgment with respect to the application of the accused in which they challenged the jurisdiction of the NAB court under the National Accountability (Amendment) Act 2022, remarked that as per the NAB (Amendment) Act 2022, the reference does not fall under the jurisdiction of the court.

The Accountability Court on June 28 reserved its judgment after hearing the arguments of the prosecution and the defence regarding the application in which the accused challenged the jurisdiction of the court.

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 due to 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