PHC issues notice to NAB officials in probe case

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday issued a notice to National Accountability Bureau’s chairman and NAB Khyber Pakhtunkhwa director general, directing them to explain why the NAB continued investigation into a corruption case beyond its legal period of four months.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Syed Afsar Shah and Justice Lal Jan Khattak issued the notice to the NAB chairman and NAB DG KP to submit reply within seven days.

The court issued the notice in a writ petition of Nisar Aziz, a sub-engineer in Pak PWD, through his lawyer Azhar Yousaf. The petitioner challenged the NAB investigation in the case running since 2014.

During hearing, the petitioner's lawyer submitted that the NAB KP had started an investigation into various development schemes of NA-29 and NA-33 in Upper Dir since 2014. He submitted that due to years-long investigation, majority of the development schemes remained incomplete as contractors had left the schemes.

The lawyer further pointed out that not only the schemes remained incomplete, but the years-long delay caused a loss of millions of rupees to the national exchequer. He pointed out a law point and submitted that under the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), NAB had only four months period for investigating the case. However, in this case against the NAO, the NAB KP continued investigation since 2014 and it still continues. The petition requested the court to declare the present investigation against the law and direct NAB to complete its inquiry and investigation within the prescribed legal period.