Ehtesab Commission files reference against ex-minister, 3 officials

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission on Monday filed a reference in the Ehtesab Court against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s former minister Ziaullah Afridi, secretary Mines and Minerals Department and two other officials for illegal appointments, postings and transfers.
Deputy Prosecutor General of the Ehesab Commission, Qazi Babar Irshad, told The News that the reference had been filed against former Minister for Mines and Minerals, Ziaullah Afridi, secretary Mian Waheedudin, Director General of the department Dr Liaquat Ali and Director Administration Mir Zaman.
He said the reference was filed against illegal appointments from grade 1 to grade 14 in the department and unlawful postings and transfers. He said up to 80 illegal appointments were made in the department.
He said separate references relating to misuse of authority and illegal mining causing billions of loss to the public exchequer would also be filed against them.Currently, Ziaullah Afridi is in the lock-up of the Ehtesab Commission after the Ehtesab Court gave him into its physical custody for another 13 days till August 4.
He was arrested on charges of misuse of authority on July 9. He had challenged his arrest in the Peshawar High Court.Earlier, the Ehtesab Commission had arrested the director general of the Mineral Development Department Dr Liaquat Ali on charges of allowing illegal mining. The Ehtesab Commission had issued warrants for arrest of the secretary Mines and Minerals Department Mian Jamshidudin in the case. As per the claim of an official of the commission, the secretary first fled to Punjab and then petitioned the Peshawar High Court, which restrained the Ehtesab Commission from arresting him.
On the other hand, a habeas corpus petition was filed by Ziaullah Afridi’s brother, Hidayatullah Afridi in the high court.He said in the petition that his brother had performed duties as minister to the best of his abilities and had got around 350 cases

registered against the people involved in illegal mining.
The petition maintained that the detainee had developed serious differences with government high-ups, who had threatened him with dire consequences on the issue of illegal mining in which blue-eyed people from their home districts were involved. The petitioner said his brother’s arrest was meant to gain cheap popularity and misguide the public.
“In fact, the arrest of the detainee (minister) is the result of his opposition to wrong policies and acts of the government,” the petition maintained.Meanwhile, an accountability court on Monday sent the Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) former provincial minister Nawabzada Mehmood Zeb and nine officials on judicial remand to the Peshawar Central Prison after completion of their physical remand.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa officials produced the former minister and other officials in the accountability court headed by Zarqiash Sani amid tight security.
However, this time the NAB prosecutors did not press for physical remand of the former minister and others. They had been arrested on charges of illegal allotment of state-owned reserves of phosphate for mining to a schoolteacher, and it reportedly caused Rs360 million loss to the exchequer.
Nawabzada Mehmood Zeb was the provincial minister for technical education, industries and minerals in the former coalition government of the Awami National Party and Pakistan People’s Party.
The NAB alleged that Mehmood Zeb, with the connivance of the nine other suspects, misused his authority to illegally allot 500 acres of a mine with proven deposits of phosphate to a schoolteacher, Rukhsana Javed.
She illegally carried out the excavation in collaboration with the first cousin of the minister, Ehtishamul Mulk, and jointly caused a loss of approximately Rs360 million to the exchequer.The other nine accused include the then secretary technical education and minerals Shah Wali Khan, the then additional secretary of the department Asmatullah Khan Gandapur who later served as commissioner of the Bannu division, section officer Farhad Ali, deputy director Khan Badshah, geologist at the Directorate of Mines and Minerals Nauroz Khan, senior inspector of mines presently serving as commissioner mines Ziarat Khan, the then director licensing (Minerals Department) Shakirullah, Assistant Director (Litigation) Pervez Khan and Assistant Director Ehtishamul Mulk.