NAB arrests officers in Rs10bn embezzlement case

KARACHI: A National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Karachi team on Thursday, conducted raids across Hyderabad, and rounded up several officers of the District Accounts Office, Hyderabad, Sindh Board of Revenue and Divisional Forest Office in connection with a massive corruption case involving embezzlement of over Rs 10 billion.

NAB sources informed The News that the team arrested two accountants of DAO, Hyderabad, both said to be real brothers Ahsan Abro and Ayaz Abro, two officials of Board of Revenue Farooq Azam and Qurban Shah claimed to be agents of DAO, a retired Divisional Forest Officer Anwar Baloch and his son Nasurullah Baloch, a contractor of the same department for their alleged involvement.

According to NAB sources, the case involves 84 suspects accused of embezzling over Rs 10 billion from 2010-2017 from three departments including Rs 8 bn by the Sindh Agriculture Department, two cases of embezzlement of Rs 3.2 billion worth of pension and GP funds by the District Accounts Office, Hyderabad and Rs one billion by the Sindh Forest Department in collusion with officials of different banks and relevant departments.

The officials of the Agriculture Department, I secured a release of over Rs8 billion from the Sindh Finance Department from FY2010-11 to FY2021-22 without being sanctioned in the budget. The amount was subsequently misappropriated through fake vouchers and agriculture refund claims from DAO, Hyderabad. In the case of the Sindh Forest Department, its officers fraudulently withdrew Rs one billion from an expired Ledger Account (PLA).

A team of Controller General Accounts, Pakistan initiated an inquiry in 2010 and identified around 84 suspects. Subsequently, the issue was handed over to NAB, Karachi in 2022. The NAB, Karachi booked Dr Mushtaq Shaikh, Ashraf Janwari, Naveed Bajari, Saifullah Magsi, Aijaz Ali Dawach, Majid Ali, Imdad Memon officer of the Sindh Agriculture Department along with others for allegedly misusing their authority and misappropriating Rs3.2 billion from the pension accounts in DAO, Hyderabad.

Recently NAB intimated the AG Sindh to compel DAO Hyderabad, Zameer Hussain Khokhar to appear before the bureau along with records which he had been evading over a long time. Taking action the Accountant General, Sindh on September 23, 2024, removed Khokhar. The NAB filed a preliminary chargesheet before the Accountability Court, in Karachi and further investigations are underway.