LAHORE:An accountability court on Friday adjourned the hearing of Chiniot mines and minerals case till March 2.
Accountability Court Judge Sajid Ali conducted the case proceedings, wherein Provincial Minister Sibtain Khan and other accused appeared and got their attendance marked.
A counsel on behalf of two co-accused submitted exemption applications and requested to exempt his clients from personal appearance for one-day.
The court allowed the applications and adjourned further hearing till March 2.
The court had fixed February 18 for the indictment of the accused. However, due to the absence of two co-accused, the indictment was deferred.
Besides Sibtain Khan, Salman Ghani, Muhammad Aslam, Abdul Sattar Mian and Imtiaz Ahmad Cheema had been named as the accused in the reference filed by the Bureau. The Bureau had alleged that Sibtain Khan exceeded his powers and awarded a multi-billion contract to a firm of his choice during 2007 when he was minister for mines and minerals in the PML-Q government. The Bureau stated the company that was given the contract had a paid-up capital of Rs2.5 million only and also lacked the experience required for the project.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Bureau arrested Sibtain Khan on June 14, 2019 but he obtained post-arrest bail from the Lahore High Court on September 19, 2019.