LAHORE:An accountability court on Wednesday returned Punjab Youth Festival reference to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
The court held that the matter did not fall under its jurisdiction, as per NAB amended Law, and ordered the NAB chairman to place the matter before the court concerned without any delay.
Accountability Court Judge Qamar-uz-Zaman conducted the proceedings on the reference filed by the Bureau.
The defence counsel advanced his arguments on acquittal applications of the accused, during the proceedings, and submitted that the accountability court was not empowered to hear any reference involving an amount below Rs 500 million, under NAB amended law. He submitted that the Youth Festival reference amount was below Rs 500 million and it did not come under the jurisdiction of the court.
At this, the court agreed with the stance of counsel and observed that it lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter and could not give findings on the acquittal applications of the accused. The court returned the matter to the NAB chairman in light of the observation.
The court noted that the accused were on bail in the matter and granted protective bail to them, after they assured to appear before the court concerned.
The accused – Muhammad Usman Anwar, Masood Wattoo, Hafeez Bhatti – were facing charges of violating the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules in award of contracts and embezzlement of Punjab Youth Festival funds.