Court conducts in camera hearing of corruption case against Sharjeel, others

KARACHI: An Accountability Court on Tuesday conducted in camera hearing of Rs5.76billion corruption reference filed against former provincial minister Sharjeel Inam Memon, officials of information department and others.

The accountability court judge conducted the hearing in closed court room, barring the reporters of both electronic and print media from entering. Later, the hearing was adjourned till January 27.

Memon was currently in jail following his arrest on Oct 23 after dismissal of his pre-arrest bail by the Sindh High Court (SHC). The post-arrest bail was also pending before the SHC.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had filed a reference against PPP lawmaker and 17 others for allegedly causing Rs5.76billion loss to the national exchequer through the embezzlement in the Sindh government’s advertisement campaign on electronic media.

According to NAB, the investigation was conducted regarding corruption and corrupt practices in the advertisement awareness campaigns on TV and FM channels between July 2013 and June 2015 and it was found that the accused acted with the connivance of each other resulting in losses to the national exchequer.