NAB finds Rs730m at home of Balochistan’s finance secretary

NAB’s team raided the office of finance secretary inside the Civil Secretariat and formally placed him under arrest

QUETTA:

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) moved early Friday morning to arrest Balochistan’s finance secretary Mushtaq Raisani on corruption charges.

Late on Friday night, a hurriedly-called press conference was held by a spokesman for the Balochistan government Anwarul Haq Kakar, in which media persons were informed that the adviser to the CM on finance, Mir Khalid, had tendered his resignation.



According to Kakar, leaders of the ruling party in the province had consulted over the matter and decided that the advisor should resign for holding a transparent investigation.

He also said that the provincial finance secretary had been suspended by the Balochistan government and a notification in this regard had been issued by the province’s chief secretary. He said that Home Secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani has been given the additional charge as finance secretary.



NAB’s team raided the office of the finance secretary inside the Civil Secretariat and formally placed him under arrest. Following the arrest, his office was also sealed. Some government functionaries opposed making the arrest during duty hours.

The NAB also raided the finance secretary’s residence and thoroughly searched it and seized cash amounting to Rs730 million and jewellery worth nearly Rs40 million. A cache of foreign currencies was also found`.

The amount of cash seized was so large that the NAB officials used teller machines to tally the exact sum till late evening. The search of the house was continuing till the filing of this report late in the night.

NAB officials confirmed the cash was found from a locker and 14 bags stuffed with local and foreign currencies. TV footage showed NAB functionaries removing the bags from Mushtaq Raisani’s residence.

Sources also confirmed that a large number of documents had also been found during the search, confirming Raisani’s involvement in the real estate business. “Raisani possesses a large number of personal properties in many cities of the country,” sources maintained.



“The NAB had kept Mushtaq Raisani under surveillance for the past three years during investigation of cases pertaining to alleged embezzlement of local government funds amounting to nearly Rs1.5 billion and misappropriation of funds reserved for Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) during the year of 2013-2015,” a spokesman for NAB said.

“The NAB conducted a surgical operation after gathering credible information and arrested Mushtaq Raisani,” Anwarul Haq Kakar told media persons.

Update:

A sessions court in Balochistan granted Raisani's physical remand in National Accountability Bureau's (NAB)'s custody on corruption charges. Raisani appeared before local Judicial Magistrate Mohammad Hanif, following which he was sent on physical remand for 14 days.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 7^th, 2016.