KARACHI – The accountability court in Karachi on Friday indicted former petroleum minister Dr Asim Hussain in Rs 462 billion corruption case.
Dr Asim is accused of Rs 462 billion corruption in the Ministry of Petroleum during his tenure. According to National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Dr Asim created artificial shortage of gas during his tenure as a result urea fertiliser prices skyrocketed and touched Rs1830 from just Rs 850.
Due to this, the government provided a subsidy on urea import which caused Rs 450 billion loss to national exchequer from 2012 to 2013. Dr Asim also acquired land illegally for establishment of Ziauddin Hospital, according to the NAB document present by the prosecutor in the court.
Dr Asim pleaded not guilty, saying he was being politically victimised. He said charges framed against him were fake.
Earlier, Dr Asim, the chairman of the Sindh Higher Education Commission, was arrested by Rangers on August 26, 2015 from his office. Following the end of his 90-day preventive detention on November 25, the Rangers handed him over to police after lodging a case against him for allegedly treating and harbouring terrorists at the North Nazimabad and Clifton branches of Dr Ziauddin Hospital at the behest of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leaders.
