PIA illegal appointments: Five suspects, including PML-N's Mehtab Abbasi, indicted

• Published date: 03 October 2019
• Publication title: Regional Times

At least five suspects, including the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's (PML-N) senior leader, Sardar Mehtab Abbasi, were indicted on Tuesday in the National Accountability Bureau's reference pertaining to the illegal appointments at the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).

The indictments were announced by the judge, Justice Muhammad Bashir, during a session at an accountability court in the federal capital.

All the suspects, however, categorically denied involvement in the crime.

On the other hand, the complainants were asked to present their witnesses on October 29.

Separately, another hearing took place in the Supreme Court of Pakistan over a case pertaining to the PIA's administrative affairs.

During the hearing, the Supreme Court rejected the petitions against the appointment of PIA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Air Marshal Arshad Mahmood Malik and advised that performance reports of the national carrier be submitted in a month from today.

The judge, Justice Umar Ata Bandial, remarked that PIA CEO Arshad Malik set up short- and long-term plans and that the the national carrier's departmental structure be improved.

'Law enforcement helpless before land, water mafias,' says SC during Parween Rehman murder case

The Supreme Court on Tuesday, while hearing a case pertaining to the 2013 murder of social worker Parween Rehman, admonished law enforcement agencies, saying they seemed "helpless before land and water mafias".

"This matter is turning into a mystery," remarked Justice Ijazul Ahsan, who was part of the bench. "Six years have gone by already, what are the law enforcement agencies doing?"

The three-member bench, headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial, asked Babar Bakht Qureshi, who is heading the joint investigation team (JIT) probing the matter, about the findings of the case. Qureshi said that there were no major developments and urged the court to give the JIT more time to investigate. He told the bench that since the murder happened six years ago, the JIT could not obtain any data through geofencing.

Justice Ahsan told Qureshi that the JIT had been constituted because law enforcement agencies were not doing their job.

"What are law enforcement agencies doing since 2013? Are these mafias out of their reach?" asked Justice Ahsan.

"Mafias have killed people who are involved in social work," said Justice Bandial.

The court granted Qureshi two months to wrap up investigation and directed him to submit an interim report in three weeks.

In June, it emerged that investigators were still trying to collect 'basic forensic and circumstantial evidence' related to the murder as two joint investigation teams reportedly overlooked the basic things to resolve the mystery surrounding the high-profile killing.

This disclosure came in an interim report filed in the Supreme Court, where the slain activist's sister Aquila Ismail moved an application...