SHC suspends Gohar's sentence in Rs2 billion coal corruption scam
SHC also adjourned Pakistan Post Office Cooperative Housing Society encroachment case till April 18
LAHORE (Dunya News) – The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday suspended the punishment of Goharullah, former president of the Chamber of Commerce Haiderabad, in a coal corruption reference worth Rs2 billion.
The SHC also approved his bail against surety bonds worth Rs1 million. An accountability court had convicted Goharullah along with five others for selling coal in the open market meant for power generation for over a decade. The court had awarded seven years of imprisonment and a fine of Rs50 million to the main accused failing which he would further face a two-year term in jail.
Others who were punished in the same case included Fateh Textile Mills Limited's general manager Hamid Mehmood Nasir, director Muhammad Saleem and three employees of Fateh Mines Group.
It is to be noted that former bureaucrat Sohail Akbar Shah, Pakistan Peoples Party MPA Faqirdad Khoso, and Abdul Rasheed Solangi had been acquitted in the same reference. The Textile Mills had got a mining lease of 8,626 acres in Lakhra Coalfield Jamshoro. The National Accountability Bureau filed a reference against the culprits in 2016. The Fateh Group was given a contract to build a 200 MW coal power plant that reportedly was not established.
Also, in another case, the court adjourned the Pakistan Post Office Cooperative Housing Society encroachment case till April 18. Senior citizens and affectees also reached the court. The Board of Revenue (BOR) has already submitted a report on the grabbing of society’s land. The petitioner said that 65 acres of the Post Office society had been illegally occupied.
The BOR lawyer told the court that big bungalows had been constructed on the Gothabad land. The land grabbers, he said, had neither property rights nor other legal documents. He said that as per the apex court directions, Gothabad couldn’t be established in urban areas.
Assistant Commissioner Sharqi apprised the court that the society’s land was adjacent to the rural area.
