Weapons scam: Physical remand of accused extended for another month

The court extended the physical remand of the three accused till August 7.

PESHAWAR:

An accountability court on Saturday extended the judicial remand of former Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Inspector General of Police (IGP) Malik Naveed, the former chief minister’s brother Ghazan Hoti, and his relative Raza Ali Khan in a multi-billion rupee weapons scam.

The three accused were produced before the court of Judge Muhammad Ibrahim Khan amid tight security to have their judicial remand extended. The court was informed that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has filed a reference of corruption against 10 accused worth Rs2.3 billion.

The NAB official further informed that they have approached the Peshawar High Court (PHC) to summon six high-ranking retired and serving police officials, and the final decision has yet to be announced in this regard. The court then extended the physical remand of the three accused till August 7.

On June 13, a PHC bench restrained the accountability court from issuing the final order on NAB’s application seeking to summon the six high-ranking officials in relation to the weapons procurement scam.

The suspects include the then-additional IGP and current Commandant Frontier Constabulary Abdul Majeed Khan, former Additional IGP Operations Abdul Latif Khan, DIG Central Police Office Sajid Ali Khan, former DIG Headquarters Muhammad Suleman Khan, the then-AIG Establishment CPO Khashil Alam, and former DIG Telecommunications Sadiq Kamal Orakzai.

A previous order of the accountability court, however, said the status of these accused has not been appropriately highlighted and neither do the case references define their role clearly.

On May 19, accountability court judge, Muhammad Ibrahim Khan, reserved his judgment for June 2 on summoning the suspects. However, the order was not pronounced, because NAB had already approached the PHC for a decision.

Malik Naveed, Amir Ghazan Hoti and Raza Ali Khan are currently in Peshawar Central Jail. The total amount of the contract was Rs7 billion, out of which the bureau says a total of Rs2.03 billion was embezzled.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2014.