Agha Siraj Durrani’s physical remand extended for third time

KARACHI: An accountability court in Karachi on Thursday extended Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani’s physical remand for the third time.

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader was presented before the accountability court as the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) sought his physical remand.

As the hearing went under way, Durrani told the court his family is being made into suspects. To this the court told the Sindh Assembly speaker that he should tell about himself to the court.

“I am being kept in a small room. There is no light nor is there a newspaper or television in that room,” Durrani said. “I am allowed to meet family and they have even detained my cook.”

At this, the NAB prosecutor told the court that the cook was arrested after it was found that huge transactions were made into his account.

He further told the court, that the accused has complained last time after which an air conditioner was installed in his room. “He wakes up at 12 and then has breakfast and reads the paper,” he said.

The prosecutor then requested the court for an extension of 15 days in Durrani’s physical remand. The court, however, rejected NAB’s 15-day request and granted an extension of 10 days.

On February 20, NAB officials arrested Durrani, who was under investigation in three cases pertaining to illegal appointments, accumulating assets beyond means, and embezzlement of funds, from a private hotel in Islamabad.

NAB had initiated three separate inquiries against Durrani last year for allegedly owning assets beyond means, illegally recruiting 352 individuals on various government positions and embezzlement of funds for the construction of the MPA Hostel and construction of the new Sindh Assembly building.