NAB submits additional list of 29 mega corruption cases to SC

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) informed the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday that the outcome of court inquiry pending since 2012 against former army officials of National Logistics Cell (NLC) for unauthorised investment of four billion rupees in stock exchange was not yet shared with it.
The NAB submitted an additional list to the SC pertaining to a list of 29 mega corruption cases of three categories -- financial, land grabbing and abuse of powers. A few days back, a three-member bench led by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja had directed the NAB to submit details of 150 mega corruption scams in the above three categories.
In addition to earlier submitted report of 150 mega scams in the apex court of such categories, the NAB on Tuesday provided an additional list of 17 financial scams, five of land grabbing and seven cases of misutilisation of powers.
Syed Khalid Iqbal, Director General Operations, while submitting the list of financial irregularities, informed the apex court that the Public Account Committee (PAC) launched a complaint against Lt Gen (retd) Khalid Munir Khan, ex-OIC of the NLC Lt Gen (retd) Muhammad Afzal Muzaffar, Ex-OIC NLC, Najeebullah Khan, Ex-DF & A NLC Saeedur Rehman, Ex-CFO of the NLC upon unauthorised investment of four billion rupees in stock exchange.
The top anti-graft body, however, submitted that the current status of the inquiry in the matter was pending, saying despite repeated reminders to the NLC and GHQ since January 2012 in the matter, no reply/record was received.
The report further submitted that no intimation regarding the outcome of the Court of Inquiry against any army officer was shared with the NAB. “As major portion of the inquiry was being conducted at the GHQ, the NAB cannot finalise the inquiry proceedings in isolation without provision of record,” says the report.
Similarly, the report revealed that in response to press clipping of July 14, 2015 under the allegations of illegal sale/acquisition of shares of KASB Bank by Bank Islami amounting to over five billion rupees, the top anti graft body initiated an inquiry against officials of the State Bank of Pakistan and KASB Bank.
In another matter of deliberate avoidance of agreement, the NAB provided a complaint of source report/Wahaj-ul-Siraj (a private person) against officers of the Privatisation Commission and management of Eitsalat over the allegation that in the PTCL-Eitsalat agreement deliberate avoidance by Eitsalat to pay US$800 million to government of Pakistan was reported.
The court was informed that an inquiry was under process in the matter. The court was further informed that an inquiry was under process against Khurram Iftikhar (ex-director of Bank of Punjab in response to complaint filed by the Bank over misutilisation of authority and fraud that gave loss of Rs6.139 billion to the Bank.
The NAB submitted 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 Pakistan which gave a loss of Rs1.4 billion to national exchequer.
Similarly, without mentioning the name or source of the complainant, the report said that a complaint was field under the allegation of sale of shares of PECO by NIT – reducing the share holding of government from 54.48 percent to 33.3 percent without prior approval of privatization commission that gave loss of four billion rupees to national kitty. The 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 said amount which can be utilized to pay off loan – Agreement between accused and Privatisation Commission for sale of land has been finalized”.
Likewise, the NAB while providing the additional list of land grabbing mega scams to the apex court, submitted that investigation is under process over illegal allotment of plots in 350 acres of Karachi Port Trust land on Clifton shore worth Rs350 billion. This investigation has taken place against Aftab Memon, former Secretary Land Utilization, officers/officials of Revenue Department and others for misusing of authority by allotting 350 acres 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 made dent to the national exchequer of over Rs50 billion.
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, 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 Rs16 billion.
While submitting the list of seven mega scam about misuse of power, Director General Operation of the 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 loss to the national exchequer of Rs13.27 billion by introducing fake specs and formula to justify the purchase of low loss transformers and procurement of distribution transformers on exorbitant rates.
The report said that inquiry was at final stage to the extent of LESCO only in the matter.Earlier, in pursuance of the apex court, the NAB had submitted list of 150 mega corruption cases in three categories including 50 each in Land scam, financial scam and misuse of power.
The anti-graft body while submitting a revised list on the court direction had submitted that inquiries in all the cases, some of them pending for over a decade will be completed during the current year
The misuse of power category included the names of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, former Prime Ministers including Raja Pervez Ashraf and Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani and many more prominent figures.