The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Tuesday submitted an additional list to the Supreme Court pertaining to 29 mega corruption cases of three categories - financial, land grabbing and misutilization of powers - worth Rs 480 billion. In addition to earlier report of 150 mega scams that the NAB submitted in the apex court of such categories, it provided a list of 17 financial scams, five cases of land grabbing and seven cases of misutilisation of powers.
Submitting the additional list of financial irregularities, Syed Khalid Iqbal, Director General Operations, said that Public Accounts Committee (PAC) launched a complaint against Lt-Gen Khalid Munir Khan (Retd), ex-OIC of the National Logistic Cell (NLC), Lt-Gen Muhammad Afzal Muzaffar (Retd), ex-OIC, NLC, Najeebullah Khan, ex-DF & A NLC and Saeedur Rehman, ex-CFO of the NLC for unauthorised investment of four billion rupees in stock exchange.
Through the report, the Bureau informed the apex court that the current status of the inquiry in the matter was pending, saying despite repeated reminders to the NLC and GHQ since January 2012 no reply/record was received yet. The report said that no intimation regarding outcome of Court of Inquiry against army officers was shared with the NAB.
The report added, "As major portion of inquiry was being conducted at GHQ, the NAB cannot finalise/conduct inquiry proceedings in isolation without provision of record". The report disclosed that in response to press clippings of July 14,2015 under the allegations of illegal sale/acquisition of shares of KASB Bank BankIslami amounting to over five billion rupees, the top anti-graft body initiated inquiry against the officials of State Bank of Pakistan and KASB Bank.
In another matter of deliberate agreement avoidance, the NAB addressed a complaint on source report /Wahaj-ul-Siraj (a private person) against officers of Privatisation Commission and management of Eitsalat over allegations that in PTCL-Eitsalat agreement deliberate avoidance by Eitsalat to pay US $800 million to government of Pakistan was reported. The report said that an inquiry was under process in the matter.
The NAB said that an inquiry was under process against Khurram Iftikhar, ex-director of Bank of Punjab, in response to a complaint filed by the Bank over misutilization of authority and committed of fraud that caused a loss of Rs 6.139 billion to bank. It added that an inquiry was under process in response to a complaint filed by Federal Ministry of Commerce against Directors/owners of M/s Haq Bahu Sugar Mills Private Limited over non-delivery of sugar to Trading Corporation of Pakistan, which caused the national kitty a loss of Rs 1.4 billion.
Without mentioning the name or source of the complainant, the report said that a complaint was field under the allegations of sale of shares of PECO by NIT through a reduction in the shareholding of government from 54.48 percent to 33.3 percent without prior approval of Privatisation Commission that resulted in a loss of four billion rupees to national exchequer. This complaint was filed against Asif Javed, Tariq Iqbal Khan, Hasan Aziz Bilgrami, Asif Jameel, Fayaz A Longi, Ather Hussain Median and others. Describing the current status of inquiry in the sale of shares of the PECO by NIT, the NAB additional list said, "Management of the PECO was called for recovery of Rs 600 million + interest till date - Management pleaded that sale proceeds of land of the PECO will generate more than the said amount which can be utilised to pay off loan - Agreement between accused and Privatisation Commission for sale of land has been finalised".
Providing an additional list of land grabbing mega scams to the apex court, the NAB reported that an investigation is under process over illegal allotment of plots in 350 acres of Karachi Port Trust land on Clifton beach worth Rs 350 billion.
This investigation has taken place against Aftab Memon, former Secretary Land Utilisation, officers/officials of Revenue Department and others for misusing authority by allotting 350 acres of land to KMC and further allotment by KMC. It further said that an inquiry was under progress in response to a complaint against Manzoor Qadir, Director General Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) Karachi and others over misuse of authority that caused a Rs 50 billion loss to the national exchequer.
Likewise, another inquiry is under progress in response to a complaint of Brig Zafar Yaseen, administrator of Defense Housing Authority (DHA) Lahore, against Hammad Arshad, the owner of Globaco private limited (currently Orange Holding private Limited), management of DHA City Lahore and others under the charge of cheating public at large and criminal breach of trust that involved an amount of Rs 16 billion.
While submitting the list of seven mega scam about misuse of power, Director General Operations NAB said that a complaint was filed by Ateeq Ahmad, XEN Wapda, against Tahir Basharat Cheema, ex-MD of Pepco, Inayat Hussain and others for causing a loss to the national exchequer of Rs 13.27 billion by introducing fake specs and formulae to justify the purchase of low loss transformers and procurement of distribution transformers on exorbitant rates.
The report said that an inquiry was at final stage to the extent of Lesco only. The report said that in response to an anonymous complaint against ex-DIG (Project Director of Balochistan Police Department) Riaz Ahmad in a Rs 5.5 billion scam, Voluntary Return approved to the extent of purchase of vehicles of Rs 40 million whereas a separate inquiry is authorised in weapons, civil work and M&E. A three-member bench led by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja had shown dissatisfaction over the top anti-graft body's performance while examining a report of the Bureau on 150 mega scams, asking why the NAB was reluctant to provide details of current status of investigations and inquiries into the scams. To which, the NAB has submitted an additional list.
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