ISLAMABAD: Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah on Wednesday appeared before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in connection with Roshan Sindh Project reference.

Roshan Sindh Project reference is part of a multi-billion rupees fake bank account scam involving Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP) co-chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari, his sister Faryal Talpur, and others.

Shah appeared before the NAB Combined Investigation Team (CIT) headed by Director General (DG) NAB Rawalpindi Irfan Mangi.

Sources said Shah told investigators that he did not misuse his authority for approval of the project. He further said he allocated project funds as per rules and regulations.

The chief minister Sindh, while talking outside the NAB office, said Rangers had arrested Uzair Baloch and remanded him in custody for 90 days.

To a question about the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report, he said the JIT prepared its report, got it signed by seven members including members from the Intelligence Bureau (IB), the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Military Intelligence (MI), Rangers and other institutions.

The head of the JIT submitted original report, he added, adding the same JIT report had been submitted in the court.

He said Federal Maritime Affairs Minister Syed Ali Haider Zaidi's claims were "baseless" as the report that was made public by Sindh government had names of all the institutions.

According to the details, the Sindh government on September 22, 2014 approved the first project of Roshan Sindh to install 20,000 solar lights by June 2016 in the major municipal and town committees across the province at a cost of Rs4 billion. Reportedly, streetlights that work on solar energy were installed on specific roads of certain cities, while the majority of the areas were ignored.

Originally, 1,000 solar lights were to be installed in districts Malir and West Karachi, 4,000 in Hyderabad division, 3,500 each in Mirpurkhas and Shaheed Benazirabad, 4,000 in Sukkur and as many in Larkana.

This project also turned out to be the costliest of them all, with each of the installed solar bulb costing Rs0.2 million. The second project, estimated at Rs3 billion, was meant to install solar lights in rural areas.

This project was approved on October 26, 2016, and was supposed to be completed by June 2018. The third project, with a price tag of Rs1.5 billion, was advertised as the second phase of the earlier scheme to install solar lights in rural areas.

Around Rs750 million have been spent on the project from the beginning of the current year that will be completed by 2020.