Embezzlement: NAB approves four high-profile probes

Three inquires, three complaint verifications in alleged graft cases also approved.

LAHORE:

An Executive Board Meeting (EBM) of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), under the chairmanship of Rear Admiral (retd) Saeed Ahmad Sargana, authorised four investigations against alleged corruption cases on Wednesday.

The first investigation was authorised against officials and government functionaries involved in the corruption at a Rental Power Plant (RPP) installed at Summanderi, Faisalabad. The project allegedly incurred losses of Rs2.8 billion to the national exchequer.

Another investigation was authorised in the Walters Power International Naudero-I, Larkana, RPP case. The accused had reportedly committed a financial scam, causing losses worth $28.423 million to the federal government.



NAB also gave the go-ahead to begin a third investigation against Shah Jehan Khetran, the former managing director of Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC), among other former and current PTDC officials. In this case, the accused were allegedly involved in financial mismanagement, illegal recruitments and illegal leasing of PTDC properties.

Zahoor Khattak, the chief controller of purchases at Pakistan Railways (PR), Saeed Akhtar, the former PR general manager, Muhammad Naeem Malik, the former GM of Pakistan Railways, Sohail Sana Qazi, the deputy chief engineer of Pakistan Steel Mills, and Pakistan Steel Traders, Lahore, contractors Zeeshan Ahmad and Jawad Ahmad are the accused in a fourth investigation approved by the board. They were supposedly involved in a corruption scandal that caused losses of Rs48.85 million to the national exchequer.

Moreover, the board authorised three inquiries, with one involving Economic Affairs Division Additional Secretary Shahid Hussain Asad, among others, for illegally reducing sales-tax rates for Pak-Arab Fertilisers and Fatima Fertilisers, causing losses worth Rs1 billion.

Another inquiry involves OGDCL and OGRA officials, in which the suspects have been accused for the illegal distribution and marketing of Hydrocarbon products in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P). The Peshawar High Court in a suo motu case had directed NAB and Federal Investigation Agency to probe the case. The last inquiry was ordered against officials of the K-P government for illegally reinstating a convicted felon, Zahid Arif, as the Communication and Works Department’s assistant director. The accused was originally involved in a Rs17 million scam back in the year 2000.

The NAB acting chairman also approved three complaint verifications, out of which one involves University of Sindh Vice-Chancellor Dr Nazir Hussain and university registrar Muhammad Nawaz Narejo for the alleged embezzlement of funds amounting to Rs9.6 million, whereas the other two involve Balochistan government officials.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 5^th, 2013.