Rs2.52bn embezzlement case: Three bank officers sent on 10-day physical remand

KARACHI: Special Magistrate Naushahro Feroze granted ten days physical remand of three Sindh Bank officials to Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in the case pertaining to Rs2.52 billion embezzlement from the funds allocated for land acquisition for Sukkur-Hyderabad motorway.

The FIA, Shaheed Benazirabad, has registered a First Information Report (FIR) number 10/2022 in the complaint of Parkash Lohano, General Manager of National High Authority (NHA), against Deputy Commissioner Naushahro Feroze Tashfeen Alam, his subordinate staff and Sindh Bank officials for their alleged involvement in the mega corruption case.

Following the registration of the case, FIA arrested the nominated officers of Sindh Bank Naushahro Feroze branch, including manager Mukhtiar Chandio, operation manager Atta Muhammad Sahito and cash officer Zeeshan Larik.

In addition to the complaint of NHA authorities, FIA also received another complaint against the accused from Sindh Bank’s Senior Vice President Asad Ali along with the record of bank’s departmental inquiry causing Rs2.52 billion loss to national exchequer.

Quoting the report of ‘Fact Finding Committee’ of Sindh government, FIA mentioned in the official documents that NHA as an acquiring agency had issued funds of Rs3.168 billion to DC Naushahro Feroze Tashfeen Alam for the land acquisition for the M-6 motorway project. Of them, Rs2.52 billion were embezzled.

It added that DC Alam overlooked the advice of the highway authority for depositing the amount in Sindh government’s treasury accounts and he opened an account in Sindh Bank instead.

The account section of DC office was used for transactions. The officials of DC office in connivance with Sindh Bank officials conducted fake bio-matric. The DC issued open cheques instead of cross cheques in violation of rules.

In his complaint, GM NHA, Parkash Lohano, submitted that keeping in view of the facts and report of ‘fact finding committee’ of Sindh government, it was evident the DC Naushahro Feroze disbursed the land acquisition funds without fulfillment of the land acquisition Act 1894.

The ‘Fact Finding Committee’ in its report revealed that Rs2.52 billion were drawn from different branches of Sindh Bank through 853 cheques issued by the DC Naushahro Feroze.

The DC did not bother to complete the required legal formalities while drawing the huge amount and not a single real landowner was compensated of the land acquired under the project in the district. The report also revealed that all cheques were signed by DC Tashfeen Aslam himself without seeking the assistance from other revenue officials.

DC Alam, an officer of the Pakistan Administrative Services (PAS) cadre, reportedly left the country after the fraud and travelled to Azerbaijan via Dubai, on November 19, 2022. He was suspended on November 23 after being absent from the duty. The payments under the land acquisition award were transferred by the National Highway Authority (NHA) to build the Hyderabad-Sukkur section (M6) of the motorway.