Special Operation Wing of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday arrested Pakistan Railways GM (Maintenance & Services) Naeem Malik and Additional GM (Mechanical) Mian Ahsan Mahmood. Both the accused persons had allegedly played a key role in purchase of spare parts worth $15.6 million for 69 Chinese locomotives.
The accused were the part of the negotiation committee, Naeem Malik being head of the committee, who decided to purchase the spare parts at very higher prices. Based on the decision of the committee, Pakistan Railways purchased 356 items, five times higher than the actual market price; 256 parts at double price, while 776 such items were purchased that were not the requirement of the organisation.
The scam surfaced during Musharraf's regime when 69 locomotives from China were purchased on suppliers credit at an amount of $98 million (Rs 5.96 billion approximately) without any assessment whether the locomotives were suitable for Pakistani environment/conditions.
NAB has already summoned and recorded the statements of former top government functionaries including former federal minister for railways Lieutenant General Javed Ashraf Qazi (Retd), former chairman Pakistan Railways Lieutenant General Saeed-uz-Zafar (Retd), Major General Hamid Hasan Butt (Retd), whereas GM Operations Saeed Akhtar was arrested and is in the custody of NAB.-PR