Ex-PSM chairman, others acquitted in canteen contract reference
- By Farooq Sami -
- Feb 27, 2021
KARACHI: An accountability court in Karachi has acquitted all accused including former chairman of the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) Moeen Aftab Sheikh in a reference against alleged corruption in canteen contract, ARY News reported on Saturday.
The persons nominated in the canteen contract’s corruption reference were acquitted by an accountability court in Karachi.
According to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the accused were involved in alleged corruption which led Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) to suffer a financial loss worth Rs80 million following the suspicious contract of 19 canteens.
Read: PSM ex-chairman, others acquitted in Rs900 mln corruption reference
The accused persons include former PSM chairman Moeen Aftab Sheikh, Rafiq Khan, Imtiazul Haq, Asghar, Zahid Ali and others.
Earlier in February last year, an accountability court had acquitted former chairman of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) Moeen Aftab Sheikh over lack of evidence in a corruption reference worth Rs490 million.
Ex-PSM chief Moin Aftab Shaikh along with ex-director (commercial) Sameen Asghar had been accused of misuse of authority which caused a financial loss of Rs0.49 billion to the national exchequer.
Read: Court acquits former PSM chief in corruption case
Moreover, the accountability court had also acquitted three accused including the former chairman of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) Moeen Aftab over lack of evidence in a corruption reference worth Rs900 million in January last year.
PSM ex-chairman Moeen Aftab, director of commercial Sameen Asghar and contractor Abdul Rasheed were nominated in the reference. It is pertinent to mention here that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had filed nine corruption references against Moeen Aftab.
The anti-corruption unit had opened an investigation into the matter in 2010, which was later transferred to NAB over directives of the Supreme Court. Moeen Aftab had been acquitted in three out of nine corruption references filed by the anti-corruption watchdog.