NAB authorizes reference, inquiries against former ministers, officials

ISLAMABAD: The Executive Board of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Tuesday authorized various inquiries, investigations and filing of references against accused persons on alleged involvement in corruption and causing multi-billion rupee losses to the national exchequer.

Justice (R) Javed Iqbal chaired the Executive Board meeting here at the NAB headquarters.

The Executive Board authorized filing of a reference against Lt Gen (Retd) Javed Ashraf Qazi, former secretary, Chairman Railways and former Minister for Railways and Communications Lt Gen (Retd) Saeed Uz Zafar, former secretary/chairman railways Major Gen (Retd) Hamid Hassan Butt, former General Manager Pakistan Railways, Iqbal Samad Khan, former Genral Manager (Operations) Pakistan Railways Khursheed Ahmed Khan, former member (Finance) Pakistan Railways Brig (Retd) Akhtar Ali Baig, former director Abdul Ghaffar, former superintendent Muhammad Ramzan Shaikh, Director M/s Husnain Construction Company, Pervaiz Latif Qureshi Chief Executive Unicon Consulting Services, Datu Muhammad Bin Kasa Bin Adda Aziz Director Max Corp Development Malaysia and others for misuse of authority and causing over Rs 2 billion loss to the national exchequer.

The board accorded approval for filing of reference against Tariq Hameed former Chairman WAPDA, Muhammad Anwar Khalid former Member Power WAPDA, Muhammad Mushtaq former Member Water WAPDA, Imtiaz Anjum former Member Finance WAPDA and others for misuse of authority and award of contract to 150MW Rental Power Project to M/s General Energy Pvt Limited in violation of NEPRA, PPRA and ECC rules thus causing billions of rupees loss to national exchequer.

The board authorized Complaint Verification against President of Pakistan Medical and Dental Council and Minister for National Health Services Saira Afzal Tarar for alleged corrupt practices in reorganization of 12 medical colleges and corrupt practices in PMDC matters.

It also authorized investigation against former CDA Chairman Farkhand Iqbal, Member Estate Khalid Mehmood Mirza, former Member Finance Javed Jahangir and others for alleged misuse of authority and selling of plots on throwaway rates thus causing Rs 494.333 million loss to the national exchequer.

The Executive Board accorded approval for conducting two separate investigations against former Provincial Minister Abdul Rauf Siddiqui, Muhammad Adil Siddiqui and Dr Sarvat Fahim, Mushtaq Ali Leghari, Mehmood Ahmed, Ghulam Nabi Mehar, Abdul Haye Dhamra, Syed Imdad Ali Shah, Syed Umeed Ali Shah and others for misuse of authority and causing Rs 435.4 million losses to the national exchequer. The above mentioned accused persons were alleged for devouring government funds and making illegal appointments in Sindh Small Industry Corporation.

The board approved an inquiry against former Director General Peshawar Development Authority Sahibzada Saeed Ahmed, Syed Zahir Shah, former DG, Sareer Muhammad, Director General, Muhammad Tariq, former General Manager, Abdul. Haleem Piracha, former Director General and others for misuse of authority in allotment of plots and adjacent land in violation of rules causing loss of Rs.75.27 million to the national exchequer.

It approved inquiry against Tehmash Khan, former Nazim/MPA, for having assets beyond known sources of income.

The board authorized an inquiry against Rehmat Baloch, Health Minister Balochistan and others for having assets beyond known sources of income.

The Executive Board decided to send back the inquiry against the management of PESCO to relevant department for legal action as per law.

The board decided to close two inquiries. One inquiry against Dr Muhammad Ishaq Fani, former program distance learning education, Bahauddin Zakaria University, Multan and second inquiry against officers of Frontier Works Organization (FWO) and National Highways Authority (NHA) due to absence of evidence.

At the end, Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal, Chairman NAB said that eradication of corruption was the top most priority of NAB and its officers should conduct inquiries and investigations on merit and transparently having solid evidence as per law and no discrimination will be made with anyone.

?AFP