Arms scandal: Court orders seizure of accused contractor’s assets

NAB’s prosecutor claims the procured equipment was of poor quality.

PESHAWAR:

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday ordered the seizure of assets belonging to a contractor allegedly involved in misappropriation while purchasing arms, ammunition and related equipment for the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) police.

A division bench comprising PHC Chief Justice (CJ) Dost Muhammad Khan and Justice Roohul Amin issued the orders while hearing an application filed by Muhammad Jamil, Deputy Prosecutor General (DPG) for the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), against the accused, Arshad Majeed.

NAB’s prosecutor said Majeed had been arrested over irregularities in a procurement deal worth Rs7 billion with a Chinese company, Norinco. NAB alleged the equipment including arms, helmets, and bullet proof jackets – meant to strengthen the K-P police – were of substandard quality.



Jamil said Majeed owned one bungalow in Defence Housing Authority, Lahore; three cottages in Chaklala Scheme, Rawalpindi; a CNG station in Chughalpura; and several plots and a bungalow in Peshawar. He added all the property had been registered under the names of his family members.

The court later accepted Jamil’s request to seize Majeed’s property.

On April 2, the court turned down bail requests of Majeed and Javed Khan, a budget officer. Both were arrested on February 22. After an appeal was filed by NAB before the PHC, the court granted 10 days of physical custody of the accused to NAB.

Meanwhile, Majeed’s counsel Athar Minallah maintained nothing had been proven against his client over the two-year inquiry period.

On March 27, the PHC had asked NAB officials to produce a file detailing an investigation into the issue. Majeed and Khan were captured during a raid which also resulted in officials recovering automatic rifles worth Rs40 million along with expensive handguns from their possession.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 25^th, 2013.