Sugar Mills subsidy reference adjourned till Jan 20

ISLAMABAD: An accountability court heard reference filed under charges of embezzlement of funds and corruption in subsidy awarded to sugar mills, ARY News reported on Thursday.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) produced Abdul Ghani Majeed, Mustafa Zulqarnain, Salman Younus and other accused in the court presided over by Judge Muhammad Bashir.

NAB prosecutor informed the court that the accused being questioned and sought more time for completion of the investigation.

The court directed NAB to provide copies of the reference to remaining accused in the reference.

The judge also directed the NAB prosecutor to submit progress report in the next hearing of the case and adjourned further hearing until January 20.

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

Sugarcane Subsidy Reference

The Government of Sindh through Cane Commissioner Sindh paid an amount of Rs 3.9 billion to different sugar mills for onward payment to genuine sugar cane growers as subsidy on account of supply of sugar cane 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.