Ex-PSM head indicted in corruption case

KARACHI Federal Anti-Corruption Court on Saturday framed charges against former Chairman Pakistan Steel Mills Moin Aftab Sheikh along with 10 other accused in a corruption case. Judge Shaukat Ali Memon framed the charges against the accused in the corruption case. However, the accused denied them, saying they were not involved in corruption. The court directed the prosecution to produce the witnesses in the next hearing to be held on June 24. Meanwhile, considering due negligence of investigation officer over producing the final challan, the court converted the interim challan against the accused in four cases as final. The court decided to supply the accused with the copies of the case during the next hearing. The court also rejected request of investigation officer giving him more time to produce the final challan. The accused in canteen corruption case include former chairman Moin Aftab Sheikh, Brigadier (r) Abdul Qayyum, former DGM Muhammad Rafiq Khan, former DGM Imtiazul Haq, former GM Asghar and others. The accused involved in the Rs22 billion corruption case include Moin Aftab, Brig (r) Abdul Qayyum, Captain Rasheed Abro and others. The cases numbers are 36/2010, 37/2010, 38/2010, and 39/2010. The accused have allegedly done the corruption of Rs80 million in giving tenders of the canteens at PSM. According to the investigation officer of the case, an FIA team after receiving a tip-off had conducted a raid and arrested Moin Aftab and booked him in four cases of power abuse and Rs22 billion corruption in Pakistan Steel Mills. Following the report of corruption in Pakistan Steel, the services of former chairman of Pakistan Steel terminated by the prime minister on August 18, 2008. Aftab was fled from Rawalpindi to Karachi and was hiding at the residence of his daughter in Defence area. On these 4 cases, the interim challan of Moin Aftabs associates who are allegedly involved in the said corruption included Director Steel Mills Rasool Bux Phulphoto, Director Commercial Sameen Asghar Abbasi, Director Steel Malik Bashir Ahmed, Captain Rasheed Abro and Khalid Khan. The former chairman was allegedly involved in purchasing 685 metric ton of crude material from a Singaporean Company at higher rate than the market prices despite having 8,617 metric ton crude material in the country. Moreover, he also purchased 50,000 metric ton coil at higher prices from an Australian company. Meanwhile, FIA has registered a case against Moin Aftab, Rasool Bux Phulphoto, Sameen Asghar and CEO of Abbas Steel Group on December 23, 2009, in which they all were allegedly responsible to have committed Rs22 billion losses to PSM.

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