LAHORE:An accountability court on Monday reserved verdict on an application filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPA Sibtain Khan about legal status of the Chiniot mines and minerals reference.
Accountability Court Judge Sajid Ali conducted the case proceedings, wherein Sibtain Khan and other accused appeared and got their attendance marked.
A counsel on behalf of Sibtain Khan submitted that the approval of the prosecutor general had not been sought before filing the reference, which was a mandatory requirement as per the NAB amended ordinance. He pleaded with the court for returning the reference as it had been filed without fulfilling legal requirements.
However, a prosecutor on behalf of National Accountability Bureau opposed the plea, saying that all legal requirements were fulfilled.
Subsequently, the court, after hearing detailed arguments of the parties, reserved verdict on the application.
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 had arrested Sibtain Khan on June 14, 2019 but he obtained post-arrest bail from the Lahore High Court on September 19, 2019.