Pak court issues arrest warrants for Chinese firm's directors

An accountability court in Peshawar has issued arrest warrants for three Chinese women directors of a mining company after they failed to appear before the court in a case of alleged smuggling of antimony from mines in Chitral to China.

The court has fixed July 11 as the next date of hearing with a direction to local police to produce the three suspects who are charged along with some other directors of the mining firm, Tuny Pak Mineral Private Limited, reports the Dawn.

The court was informed that the three directors named Hongying Wen and her two daughters, Xe Ping and Han Wen, had not turned up to face trial despite summons being issued in their names.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) 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 and had smuggled it to China thus inflicting a loss of USD 947,000 to the exchequer.

The bureau had started an inquiry against the said company three years ago.

The firm has 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.