Court adjourns sugarcane subsidy reference hearing till Dec 13

ISLAMABAD: An accountability court adjourned hearing of sugarcane subsidy reference till December 13, ARY News reported on Wednesday.

Accountability Court Judge Syed Asghar Ali presided over the hearing.

National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutor Waseem Javed and lawyers of co-accused were present in the court hearing.

The co-accused have filed acquittal petitions in the reference but the NAB reply not yet filed in the court.

“The NAB reply has been under preparation, which will be submitted after its approval,” the prosecutor told the court.

The court adjourned hearing of the case till Dec 13.

The reference is filed under charges of embezzlement in funds released by the government of Sindh to sugar mills as subsidy for onward payment to sugarcane farmers.

The Government of Sindh through the Cane Commissioner Sindh paid an amount of Rs 3.9 billion to different sugar mills for onward payment to sugarcane growers as subsidy on account of supply of sugarcane for the season 2014-15.

An investigation was conducted on the eight sugar mills of Omni Group owned by Anwar Majeed and his four sons Abdul Ghani Majeed, Nimr Majeed, Mustafa Zulqarnain Majeed and Ali Kamal Majeed.

The investigation revealed that out of Rs728.18 million subsidy granted to the eight sugar mills of Omni Group, an amount of Rs346 million has been allegedly misappropriated by the accused in connivance with their senior employees by showing their low paid staff as sugarcane growers.