ISLAMABAD: An accountability court in Islamabad on Thursday deferred indictment of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gillani and others accused in a graft case related to awarding alleged illegal advertisement contract. Accountability judge Azam Khan resumed the hearing of the case as the former premier Gillani did not show up before the court. The judge deferred indictment of the accused owing to the absence of the PPP leader and other accused and decided to frame charges against them on the next hearing slated for Feb 13. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) approved filing corruption references against former prime minister Gillani and others for their alleged involvement in illegally awarding an advertising contract in violation of Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules. The other accused in the case included former secretary Information Technology Farooq Awan, former principal information officer Muhammad Saleem, Syed Hassan Sheikh, Inam Akbar, and other officials of the Ministry of Information Technology, who allegedly misused their authority which caused a loss of Rs128.07 million to the national exchequer.

Source: Pakistan Today January 30, 2020 09:33 UTC