ISLAMABAD, Jul 4 (APP): The accused involved in a multi-million rupee corruption case of the national news agency Associated Press of Pakistan on Thursday fled from the court after their pleas for bail before arrest were rejected by Special Judge Central Humayun Dilawar.
APP’s former IT Director and Project Director Muhammad Ghawas, former Manager Accounts Arshad Majeed Chaudhry, Deputy Director IT Musawar Imran, Chief Computer Engineer Saad Mudassar and two others, who are accused of flagrant violations in the procurement process in “Restructuring of News Operation by replacing outdated equipment with modern cutting edge technology”, filed the petitions for bail.
During the hearing, APP’s counsel Sardar Muhammad Yaqub Mastoi argued that the accused had violated the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules, causing significant financial loss to the national institution, and requested the court not to accede to their plea for bail.
Judge Humayun Dilawar, agreeing with the APP counsel’s arguments, rejected the accused’s plea, who managed to escape from the court premises.
It may be noted that the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Anti-Corruption Wing, after thorough investigations, had lodged a First Information Report against the accused.
According to the FIR, the FIA initiated the enquiry on the request of APP Managing Director, which established that the APP’s Procurement Committee members including the then Project Director Muhammad Ghawas, Deputy Director IT Musawar Imran and Chief Computer Engineer Saad Mudassar colluded with the contractors, resulting in a loss of Rs 124.96 million to the national treasury.
The total cost of the project was Rs 786.79 million.
It was further established that the Procurement Committee members colluded with contractors M/s Arttech System, M/s Tejari Pakistan Private Limited, M/s Commtel, and M/s New Horizon, and violated relevant rules and regulations during the procurement process.
The FIA registered the case against the accused under Sections 34, 409, 420, 468, 471 of the PPC r/w 5(2) 47 PCA for fraud, forgery, criminal misconduct, rule violations, misuse of power, causing significant loss to the national treasury, and misappropriation of public funds.
Besides Muhammad Ghawas (Project Director), Musawar Imran (Deputy Director) and Saad Mudassir (Chief Computer Engineer), other accused included Bilal Zafar (Deputy Director Cyber Wing Ministry of Information), Arshad Majeed Chaudhry (APP’s then Manager Accounts), Ziaullah Bhutto (APP’s then Director Admin and P&D), and officials of M/s Tejari Pakistan Private Limited, M/s New Horizon, M/s Arttech System, and M/s Media Links.
It is noteworthy that FIA’s Director Islamabad Zone Shahzad Nadeem Bukhari, Deputy Director Muhammad Afzal Khan Niazi and Assistant Director Shahid Parwaiz Malik of Anti-Corruption Circle Islamabad worked hard to gather substantial evidence of the corruption committed by the accused.
The investigating officers presented the case effectively before the court.
The FIA has formed teams to arrest the accused.
