ISLAMABAD: Tauqeer Sadiq, a former chairman of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) and prime accused in a Rs82 billion corruption scam, filed an appeal in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Saturday against his conviction in absentia by an accountability court of Rawalpindi.
The accountability court on May 7 had sentenced him to three-year imprisonment under section 31-A of the NAB ordinance of 1999 after he failed to appear before the court despite repeated notices.
Under the law, Mr Sadiq could have filed an appeal against his conviction within one month after the conviction. He has now requested the IHC to condone the delay.
Mr Sadiq escaped from Pakistan in last December while the case against him was pending in the accountability court and the Supreme Court had also initiated proceedings after taking suo motu notice of the scam.
He was brought back to Pakistan by NAB officials on July 9 and subsequently produced before the accountability judge Mohammad Bashir.
According to an interim reference submitted by the NAB in the accountability court, Mr Sadiq and Ogra officials Mansoor Muzaffer Ali (member gas) Mir Kamal Farid Bijarani Marri (member finance) and Jawad Jameel (staff officer to the Ogra chairman) were involved in the scam.
They have been accused of giving undue and illegal financial relief to some private companies and individuals and issuing licenses for CNG stations on fake or bogus documents, thus, causing a loss of Rs82bn to the national exchequer.