Officer facing NAB inquiry gets lucrative NHA job

ISLAMABAD: The government has appointed a Fata Directorate officer, who is facing a big inquiry in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), on a lucrative position of Member Admin of the National Highway Authority (NHA).

Spokesman for NAB KP confirmed to The News that Ali Sher Mehsud is amongst the officers of Fata Directorate who are facing an inquiry of an alleged embezzlement in Rs1 billion solar power related project. “The record of the project has summoned but not provided to the NAB KP so far,” the NAB KP spokesman said, adding, “Now the additional secretary of Fata Directorate has been called in the NAB office and he will be requested to provide complete record of solar project.” The spokesman said that in case of non-provision of record, the proceedings of hampering with the investigation would be initiated. 

On the other hand, Ali Sher Mehsud, an influential PAS officer, on being contacted by The News confirmed his appointment as Member Admin of NHA. “I was serving as GM Finance in FATA Directorate. It is wrong to allege that I am not providing record of solar project to the NAB KP,” Ali Sher said, adding, “The record is with the project director and not with me.”

Sources in the NAB told The News that embezzlement to the tune of Rs700 million in solar project of Fata was reported to NAB and consequently the Bureau has launched an inquiry. “However not only the Fata Directorate plainly refused to provide record but even Ali Sher (GM Finance) didn’t appear to face the inquiry and tried to use influence of PAS (DMG Group) officers,” a senior NAB officer told The News. The NAB official disclosed that when the matter became public, Ali Sher, who was the main person in finance department of the FATA Directorate, appeared but the record of the project was never provided to NAB which is tantamount to hampering with the inquiry proceedings. The official said that without support of Finance Department such embezzlements are not possible and NAB will not only completely probe the matter but will also fix responsibility.

Ali Sher however insisted that when he was initially summoned by the NAB he was not in Peshawar. “I was in Lahore and upon my return I appeared before NAB KP. I had no direct connection with implementation of the solar project in Fata and the official record is never with the officer. It is always in the concerned office,” he argued. He said that NAB could obtain record from the office of PMU which is in Hayatabad and probe the PD of the project.

Though still NAB has to fix responsibility but there is no argument that embezzlement to the tune of Rs700 million was committed. The latest appointment in NHA has raised many eyebrows and needs a detailed response from the government.

However, on being contacted, the Prime Minister Office simply said that it never deals with transfers and postings below Grade-22 and it is the job of Establishment Division. On the other hand, a government official told The News that Ali Sher was not facing any kind of inquiry in NAB.