300 cases pending with NAB

The cases of investigation into four mega scams relating to attached departments of Ministry of Industries and Production are pending with National Accountability Bureau (NAB) since long. An official source told Business Recorder there are a number of pending cases pertaining to Ministry of Industries and Production including: (i) National Fertilizer Marketing Limited (NFML) urea scam involving Rs 880 million, (ii) Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) involving Rs 26 billion, (iii) two cases of Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) estimated at Rs 480 million and (iv) Inam Transport Company involving Rs 450 million.
He said in the NFML scam, NAB has so far arrested three people, including Umar Farooq, a contractor, Zulfiqar Ali, a store in-charge and Abdul Ali, another official.
Umar Farooq in alleged connivance of officials of NFML and Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP), allegedly caused a huge financial loss to the national exchequer.
The official said that accused Zulfiqar Ali, store in-charge, alone caused a loss of Rs 16 million [approximately] to the public exchequer by committing misappropriation of more than 10,000 bags of imported urea fertiliser from an NFML store in Quetta. The official said that NAB has so far filed nine PSM-related references in the accountability court amounting to Rs 26 billion during the fiscal year 2008-09. The PSM cases were transferred to NAB from the FIA following the directives of Supreme Court, he said.
He said the Executive Board Meeting (EBM) of NAB has authorised investigation against Mueen Aftab, former Chairman Pakistan PSM, Sameen Asghar, Ex-Director Commercial PSM and others.
The official source said the Ministry of Industries and Production referred the case of Inam Transport Company to NAB in 2013. The company has allegedly defaulted on payment of Rs450 million to National Fertilizer Marketing Limited (NFML), he said.
The official said that two corruption cases of Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) involving corruption of Rs 480 million are also pending with NAB.
He said that presently over 300 corruption cases of various nature are pending with NAB. The cases have remained unattended due to a variety of reasons for the past many years.