ISLAMABAD, Jul 30 (APP): The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Tuesday arrested accused, including the former project director of the Associated Press of Pakistan Corporation (APPC), Ghawas Khan, after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) terminated their interim bail petitions in a multimillion-rupee corruption scandal.
Musawir Imran (ex-Deputy Director) and Saad Mudassar (ex-Chief Computer Engineer) were also among those apprehended by the FIA’s anti-corruption wing.
IHC Justice Tariq Mahmood Jahangiri heard the pre-arrest bail petitions filed by the accused. APPC’s Counsel, Sardar Yaqoob Mastoi Advocate, appeared before the bench and argued that the lower court had already canceled the bails of the accused, but they managed to escape from the courtroom.
He informed the bench that the accused caused a loss of millions of rupees to the state-run news organization through corrupt practices and violations of PPRA rules in the purchase of equipment. The lawyer requested the court to dismiss the pre-arrest bail petitions so that the accused could be arrested for further investigation into the scam.
He emphasized that each petitioner has been accused of a specific role and that the custody of the accused is essential to investigate the irregularities mentioned in the FIR.
Conversely, the lawyers of the accused requested the bench to grant interim bail to the petitioners.
After hearing the arguments, the court terminated the interim bails of the accused, after which the FIA arrested Ghawas Khan, Saad Mudassar, and Musawir Imran.
It is noteworthy that the FIA had registered a corruption case against the accused, including the aforementioned three individuals and Bilal Zafar (ex-Deputy Director of the Cyber Wing, Ministry of Information), Arshad Majeed Chaudhry (ex-Manager Accounts, APPC), Ziaullah Bhutto (former Director Admin & P&D), officials of M/s Tejari Pakistan Private Limited, M/s New Horizon, M/s Art Tech System, and M/s Media Links under Sections 34, 409, 420, 468, 471, PPC r/w 5(2) and 47 PCA.
The accused are alleged to have colluded as members of the procurement committee to award a contract worth 113 million rupees illegally without the approval of the financial proposal from the Managing Director of APPC and violated PPRA rules in the purchase of the organization’s equipment. According to the FIR, these individuals are also accused of preparing fake minutes of the 8th meeting in collusion with each other.
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