Rooting out corruption: NAB arrests irrigation engineer

SUKKUR:

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Sukkur, arrested an irrigation engineer from Khairpur over charges of massive corruption on Monday. Meanwhile, an accountant was awarded five years of imprisonment along with a fine of Rs2.82 million.

On Monday, a team of NAB, Sukkur, raided the offices of the executive engineers of Feeders East and West, Khairpur. As soon as the team entered the office, most of the staff members, including the executive engineer of Feeder West, Khairpur, Muhammad Younus Domki, managed to escape.

Nonetheless, the team arrested the executive engineer of Feeder East, Khairpur, Ayaz Soomro. The team also confiscated records pertaining to the repair and maintenance works from 2012 to 2015 and left. Sources claimed that corruption to the tune of millions of rupees has been carried out during the last five years.



On the other hand, the Sukkur accountability court convicted on Monday an accused, Riaz Ahmed, who is said to be an accountant in District Account Office, Sanghar, over charges of making assets beyond his known sources of income. According to a NAB official, the accused has been awarded five years of rigorous imprisonment, with a fine of Rs2.8 million.

According to the official, NAB had filed a reference on the allegations of accumulation of assets beyond known sources of income. NAB initiated the case on the basis of a complaint received against Ahmed.

During investigations, the allegations were proved, therefore, a reference was filed before the accountability court. The accused committed the offence under section 9(a), punishable under section 10 of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999.

After the conviction, the accused has become ineligible to hold public office and to take loan from banking or financial institutions, besides losing his job, said the NAB official. Moreover, he added, if the accused fails to pay the fine, his properties will be auctioned and the sale proceeds thereof will be deposited into the national exchequer.

This was the fourth conviction by this court since its establishment, added the official.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 2^nd, 2016.