Accused of fraud: NAB arrests contractor, income tax official in separate cases

Abdali allegedly derived illegal gains during construction of Adina Lahore Road in Swabi.

PESHAWAR: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has arrested a contractor and an official of the income tax department in separate cases.

Inayatullah Khan Abdali, contractor of Abdali Brothers Ramzan & Co, was allegedly involved in the substandard reconstruction of Adina Lahore Road, Swabi. A complaint was lodged against the accused in NAB after which Abdali was arrested.

In 2005, the provincial government approved reconstruction of Adina Lahore Road.

The project was financed through loans by the Asian Development Bank and its completion was to take two years. However, reconstruction was not finished, and the portion that was complete was also damaged as the survey design and PC-1 specification were reportedly ignored by the contractor.



During investigation, it was discovered that Abdali derived illegal gains from recording higher rates of asphalt concrete.

This resulted in a loss of Rs22.64 million to the national exchequer. A sum of Rs15.09 million has already been recovered from the co-accused in the case, including the former project director. Abdali will be produced before an accountability court in Peshawar to obtain his physical remand.

Meanwhile, NAB has arrested one more official of the Abbottabad Income Tax Department, Amjad Qadoos. The officer was allegedly involved in fake income tax refunds, causing a loss of Rs160 million to the national kitty.

Earlier, six income tax officers of Abbottabad district were arrested by NAB’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) chapter.

These include Commissioner Income Tax Asif Haider Orakzai, Muhammad Siddique, Jehangir Hussain, Muhammad Haroon, Masoodur Rehman and Ali Afsar. The accused allegedly prepared bogus income tax refunds on the pretext of providing assistance to the victims of the 2005 earthquake. They embezzled Rs160 million by collecting signed cheques from people affected by the disaster during 2008-9. NAB is interrogating the suspects and more arrests are likely to be made soon.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2014.