An accountability court in Karachi on Wednesday sentenced former president of chamber of commerce to seven-year jail in Rs2 billion coal corruption reference, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

The court also slapped a fine of Rs500 million on Goharullah. Two other accused – Muhammad Saleem and Hamid Mahmood – were also sent to jail for four years each. Saleem and Hamid were also fined Rs5 million each.

The court imposed Rs10 million fine each on three other accused, Hafeezur Rehman, Shakeel Ahmed and Haji Abdur Razzaq and also awarded five-year imprisonment to each of them.

The court ordered to send all the convicts including Goharullah, who were on bail, to the prison. The court also disqualified all the accused from holding any public office for 10 years and barred them from obtaining a loan from any financial institution.

The court, however, acquitted another three accused – Secretary Livestock and Fisheries Sohail Akbar, Secretary Labour Abdur Rasheed Solangi and former Sindh MPA Faqeer Dad Khoso – for lack of evidence.

The NAB had filed a reference of Rs2 billion corruption against the accused for illegally selling coal.

Reporter Mumtaz Jamali