AC adjourns hearing of assets reference against Agha Siraj Durrani

KARACHI: An accountability court in Karachi has adjourned the hearing of assets beyond income reference against Agha Siraj Durrani as the Speaker Sindh Assembly failed to appear before the court today, ARY News reported on Thursday.

The accountability court conducted the hearing of assets beyond income reference against Speaker Sindh Assembly Agha Siraj Durrani today. However, Durrani did not appear in the hearing.

The lawyers of the accused submitted an exemption plea from personal appearance in the hearing. The lawyer told the court that Durrani’s bail plea was pending in the Supreme Court (SC).

The judge expressed disappointment over the non-production of the accused persons in the hearing.

Later, the hearing was adjourned till December 23.

On November 17, Agha Siraj Durrani had filed a pre-arrest bail petition in the Supreme Court after addressing the registrar office’s objections.

READ: SHC REJECTS BAIL OF AGHA SIRAJ DURRANI IN ASSETS CASE

The PPP leader, who went into hiding to avoid his arrest at the hands of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) after the SHC revoked his bail, had filed the petition through his counsel.

He had also filed a separate application requesting an early hearing of the bail plea.

On July 20 last year, the anti-corruption body had ordered an inquiry on charges of corruption against the Sindh Assembly speaker.

The NAB prosecution named 20 persons including Agha Siraj Durrani as accused in the reference filed in accountability court Karachi after an inquiry.

According to the NAB charge sheet, the accused were involved in corruption of up to 1.6 billion rupees.

The NAB Karachi had arrested Siraj Durrani from a hotel in Islamabad in February this year.