The final countdown: Court likely to indict four accused in multi-billion rupee scam

Charged with embezzling Rs2.03b in procurement of police equipment .

PESHAWAR:

The accountability court is likely to indict four high-profile suspects arrested on charges of embezzlement in the Rs7 billion weapons procurement scam circa 2008-10.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) produced former chief minister Amir Haider Hoti’s brother Amir Ghazan Hoti and his relative Raza Ali Khan before the court of Justice Muhammad Ibrahim Khan on Friday. Former IGP Malik Naveed was unable to attend the proceedings due to a medical condition.

The court exempted Naveed from appearing in person on Friday after it learnt of the accused’s health problems. Naveed was arrested on November 20 last year and spent 56 days in the custody of NAB before he was sent to Peshawar Central Prison where he has been incarcerated since. His bail application was also rejected by the high court.

NAB had also arrested Javed Khan, a budget officer in the police department, before he obtained bail. Javed was rearrested in another case of illegal assets.

The court then ordered these four accused should be produced at the next hearing on September 27. According to all signs, it is likely the court will indict them in the case.

Doing time

The Peshawar High Court dismissed a bail request of Ghazan Hoti on Wednesday; Ghazan was arrested on April 15, after his pre-arrest bail was not extended by the high court. He also spent 21 days in the custody of NAB.

Hoti has been accused of allegedly taking Rs195 million in kickbacks to speed up the approval of the contract worth Rs7 billion.

Raza Ali Khan was arrested on January 6 and has been accused of taking Rs3 million in bribes. He too is a relative of the former chief minister Hoti. His bail application was also dismissed and Raza spent 24 days in NAB’s custody before being sent to jail.

In this high-profile misappropriation case, NAB filed a reference of alleged corruption of Rs2.03 billion which was embezzled during the procurement of weapons and other equipment for the provincial police in 2008-10.

Six other suspects

NAB had also named six other suspects in the case who it claims observed criminal negligence during the course of their duty. The accountability court did not summon these officials hence the bureau approached the high court.

The high court has also dismissed the petition of NAB for extending the enquiry to these six officials.

They include Frontier Constabulary commandant Abdul Majeed Khan, former AIG operations Abdul Latif Khan, central police office DIG Sajid Ali Khan, former DIG headquarters Muhammad Suleman Khan, the then AIG establishment Khashil Alam and former DIG telecommunication Sadiq Kamal Orakzai. The accountability court said in its order the status of their crime is neither highlighted nor defined in the reference filed; hence it refused to summon them.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th, 2014.