Syed Wajid Ali Shah has been placed in custody for seven days. PHOTO: FILE
PESHAWAR: An accountability court remanded a district councillor from Mansehra into National Accountability Bureau (NAB) custody for seven days on charges of embezzlement. The decision was taken on Saturday.
District councillor Syed Wajid Ali Shah was produced before Judge Ibrahim Khan. The NAB team alleged in court that the suspect had misappropriated development funds worth millions. The team said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had approved Rs100 million in development funds for the NA-21 constituency in Kala Dhaka, adding funds were misappropriated in connivance with other authorities.
The court accepted the request that Wajid be handed to NAB custody for further investigation.
NAB has already arrested former Mansehra district coordination officer (DCO) and incumbent DG, Zulfiqar Ali, former planning and development additional secretary Dr Ambar Ali and sub-divisional engineer Athar Ali on charges of embezzlement in the same case. Their bail applications were dismissed by the Peshawar High Court on Wednesday.
The court was informed that a contractor, charged in the same case, struck a plea bargain and was released after voluntary return.
In a hearing before a division bench headed by PHC Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel, the court was informed by Qazi Anwar, the suspects’ counselor, that Zulfiqar was appointed as Mansehra DCO on October 12, 2012 and transferred on November 20, 2012.
He served for one month and five days only as Manshera DCO when he was accused for approving the schemes. The bench was informed that funds for each scheme were sent from the PM House and a committee was formed to supervise these projects.
The bench was also informed that the supreme court stayed work on the projects soon after Zulfiqar assumed charge as DCO and ordered Auditor General of Pakistan to audit them.
“The AG did not mention the word misappropriation anywhere in his report, rather he said no income tax was deducted from the funds at the time of payment to the contractors,” Anwar argued.
Sub-divisional officer Athar Ali pleaded all projects were completed as per rules and regulations and were declared just in several enquiries.
However, NAB prosecutors said 19 contractors were arrested and reached a plea bargain with the bureau, while two of them, including Abdul Mustafa and Altaf Hussain, became approvers. As per their statements, they paid 43% commission to the authorities.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 17th, 2016.
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