Karachi: A former petroleum minister and close aide of ex-Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari was on Friday charged along with five others for money laundering and fraud that caused a Rs462 billion (Dh25 billion) loss to the national exchequer.
Asim Hussain and other accused were produced in an accountability court where Judge Saad Qureshi read out the charges against them. They all pleaded not guilty.
The court has summoned prosecution witnesses to record their testimonies at the next hearing of the case, on May 14.
Few months after Hussain was arrested by paramilitary rangers, Zardari went abroad and has remained there since.
In references filed against Hussain, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) charged him with misusing authority to get plots allotted fraudulently and encroach upon state land for the expansion of his Dr Ziauddin Hospital/Trust, illegal gains, kickbacks and money laundering.
Hussain has also been accused of receiving commissions from a fertiliser cartel for an “exploitative price hike”.
Another charge related to “black marketing and fraud with the public” in the name of a charity hospital.
NAB said Hussain, while he was federal petroleum minister, had deprived the state of Rs462.5 billion from 2010 to 2013 — Rs450 billion through the fertiliser scam, Rs9.5 billion through land fraud and Rs3 billion through money laundering.
