Take the money: Masoom Shah keen to return Rs200 million

Special assistant to former CM files second voluntary return application

PESHAWAR: What should one do when all doors are closed and their cover actions are the talk of the town? This is palpably the question the detained special assistant to former CM had been considering for days on end.

Syed Masoom Shah alias SMS is no ordinary man. He was at the helm of power alongside Amir Haider Hoti for years. He was handcuffed on August 11 by National Accountability Bureau Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on charges of accumulating assets beyond known sources of income. He was produced before the accountability court of judge Muhammad Ibrahim Khan on Tuesday. The court was informed that Shah has filed an application stating he is willing to make a Rs200 million voluntary return.

During the proceedings, prosecutor Noroz Khan informed the court Shah has filed a second application to pay back what was forked in. The detained special assistant had earlier filed an application to return Rs40 million in July which was turned down.

The ball is now in the bureau chairman’s court and he is expected to decide upon the second application in the coming days.

Later, the court extended the physical remand of Shah for another seven days and handed him over to NAB K-P.

According to a statement issued by NAB, during the course of enquiry it was revealed that Shah accumulated assets that do not match his legal sources of income. They include a 12-kanal house and hujra in his hometown in Battagram district, two plots of precious land in Hayatabad, two plots in Regi Model Town, two plots in DHA Karachi, an expensive house on Tulip Road, Bahria Town Rawalpindi, a one-kanal house in Zaryab Colony, three kanals of precious land in Tehkal Bala and a one kanal plot near Warsak Road in Peshawar. The bureau also recovered around five kilogrammes of gold from bank lockers owned by Shah.

Power theft

Separately, NAB filed a corruption reference worth Rs26.017 million against the owner of a steel mill. Imran, a resident of Shah Kas in Jamrud, Khyber Agency, is the owner of namesake Imran Steel Mill. He was arrested for power theft. NAB stated the accused stole 3,844,058 units of electricity over 29 months. Imran paid Rs0.542 million as the first instalment of his voluntary return and was on the run since. The reference was filed with an accountability court that will hear the case in the next few days.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16^th, 2015.