Court to hear corruption reference against PPP’s Rubina Khalid on July 16

ISLAMABAD: An accountability court has fixed reference for hearing, filed against Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senator Rubina Khalid over Lok Virsa scandal.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Rawalpindi on Monday had filed reference against Rubina Khalid.

The court has issued notices to Rubina Khalid, co-accused in the reference, Muhammad Shafi and Tabinday Zaffar.

The court will hear the reference against PPP lawmaker and others on July 16.

Rubina Khalid and other named in the reference are accused of causing loss of over rs 30 million to the national exchequer.

According to the bureau, the evidence that was collected during the investigation had established that the accused had committed the “offence of corruption and corrupt practices as defined under Section 9 (a), (VI) and (XII) punishable u/s 10 of [National Accountability Ordinance (NAO)] 1999.”

The accountability body had said that during the investigation, it was established that Mazharul Islam had misused his authority and illegally extended the contracts in favour of Cosmos Production “in connivance with” Senator Khalid and Dr Zafar.

In a meeting of the NAB’s executive board that was presided over by NAB Chairman retired Justice Javed Iqbal in November 2018 had approved investigations against various persons including Senator Khalid.