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Thursday, March 31, 2011


Court sends Hamid Kazmi on 14-day judicial remand

By Ali Hassan

ISLAMABAD: A sessions court on Wednesday sent former federal minister for religious affairs, Hamid Saeed Kazmi, on 14-day judicial remand in the Hajj corruption scandal.

Kazmi, who has completed his two-week physical remand and was produced in the court of Judge Muhammad Aslam Gondal on Wednesday, will be kept at the FIA Academy in Islamabad.

During the course of hearing, the FIA official informed the court that the investigation into the case was in progress and would be completed soon. He said that “until now, the agency has found Kazmi involved in the scandal, adding that he had instructed former Hajj director general, Rao Shakeel Ahmed, to hire costly buildings for pilgrims in Saudi Arabia”.

The official told the court that Shakeel was in custody of the Punjab National Accountability Bureau (NAB), to which “the FIA has made a request for producing him in Islamabad for the purpose of investigation”. The official also presented evidence before the court which established links between Kazmi and Ahmed Faiz, another main accused in the scandal. The investigator alleged that Faiz had been working on the directions of Kazmi.

The judge snubbed the FIA investigation officer for not producing proper investigation record before the court, and noted that the agency was granted physical remand of Kazmi three times but it could not produce any concrete evidence against him. The court adjourned the hearing until April 13.

Talking to Daily Times, FIA Assistant Director (Legal), Khalid Mehmood, claimed that links between Kazmi and Faiz did exist because mobilephone records of the former minister showed that calls had been made to Faiz.


Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk

 

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