PESHAWAR – An accountability court in Peshawar issued arrest warrants of three female Chinese directors of a mining company after they failed to appear in a case of alleged smuggling of a chemical substance antimony.
The court directed the local police to produce the three suspects who are charged along with some other directors of the mining firm, Tuny Pak Mineral Private Limited on next hearing scheduled to take place on July 11.
The court was informed that the three directors, Ms Hongying Wen and her two daughters, Xe Ping and Han Wen, had not turned up to face trial despite issuance of summons.
The country’s top graft-buster had filed a reference against the three suspects along with some other directors of the firm claiming that the firm had explored antimony from a mining site in Chitral and had smuggled it to China thus causing a loss of $947,000 to the national exchequer.
The NAB had started an inquiry against the company three years ago when the then provincial minister Ziaullah Afridi had levelled certain charges alleging that the company had excavated antimony from mines in Chogor area of Chitral but sold it in China in violation of the set procedures. He had alleged that around 413 tons of antimony had been smuggled to China by the company in question.
On the other hand, the firm had denied the charges and claimed that it had obtained a written permission in August 2012 from mines and minerals department for transportation of 500 tons of antimony to China as a sample for testing purposes.
