Kidney Hills reference: AC to indict Saleem Mandviwalla, others on April 14

ISLAMABAD: An accountability court in Islamabad has decided to indict former Senate deputy chairman Saleem Mandviwalla and others in Kidney Hills reference on April 14 as two co-accused did not appear in the hearing today, ARY News reported on Thursday.

The accountability court’s judge Muhammad Bashir resumed the hearing of Kidney Hills reference of fake bank accounts case where Saleem Mandviwalla and other accused are likely to be indicted today.

A co-accused Nadeem Hakim submitted his plea through the counsel to the accountability court to seek exemption from personal appearance in the hearing.

Read: Court defers indictment of Saleem Mandviwalla, others

Judge Muhammad Bashir remarked that the copies of the reference were provided to the accused.

Mandviwalla’s lawyer Barrister Qasim Abbasi told the court that two co-accused Nadeem Hakim and Abdul Ghani Majeed were not present in the hearing.

The judge asked the lawyer to proceed with the arguments in the case. The defence lawyer replied that he will continue with the arguments in the next hearing.

Later, the court adjourned the hearing till April 14.

Illegal land allotments

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had filed a reference against ex-Senate Deputy Chairman Saleem Mandviwalla in an illegal land allotments case on January 13.

Read: NAB files reference against Saleem Mandviwalla

The anti-graft watchdog in its reference stated the accused sold government plots to Abdul Ghani Majeed – son of Omni Group chief Anwar Majeed.

According to NAB, Mandviwalla had purchased fake shares in the name of his frontman by selling the plots.

The national graft buster had also submitted a report to the court which stated that former PIA managing director Aijaz Haroon had also played a key role in selling illegal plots to Abdul Ghani Majeed.

The NAB had nominated Saleem Mandviwalla, Aijaz Haroon, Abdul Ghani Majeed and Tariq Mehmood as offenders in the reference.