KARACHI: Accountability Court Karachi, hearing Rs17 billion corruption case, on Saturday allowed Dr Asim Hussain to travel abroad for medical treatment.
The court considered the applications regarding Dr Asim’s overseas travel and the possibility of sending the corruption reference back to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
Advocate Owais Jamal, representing Dr Asim Hussain, argued that his client should be allowed to go abroad for medical treatment. The court, after deliberation, reserved its decision on the request to return the corruption reference to NAB, with a pronouncement scheduled for February 15. Meanwhile, the court has granted Dr Asim permission to travel abroad.
Dr Asim had sought permission to go abroad from February 15 to March 30. In the case, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) alleges that the accused, including Dr Asim, were involved in causing a loss of Rs17 billion to the national exchequer through gas contracts.
Corruption charges
An accountability court in 2017 had indicted Dr Asim Hussain, ex-petroleum secretary Ejaz Chaudhry and others in an over Rs 460 billion corruption reference.
Dr Hussain was taken into custody on August 26, 2015, by Rangers on different corruption charges.
After 19 months, his bail plea was referred to a referee judge for final orders. The referee judge, Justice Aftab Ahmed Gorar, granted bail to the accused earlier this year.
Dr Asim Hussain faced charges of misusing his authority for getting plots allotted fraudulently and encroaching upon state land for expansion of Dr Ziauddin Hospital/Trust, money laundering, illegal gains, kickbacks, commission through fertiliser cartel for illegal curtailment of gas for exploitative price hike and defrauding people in the name of charity hospital.
