NAB recovers assets worth Rs1.3b from Mushtaq Raisani

QUETTA: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Wednesday recovered assets worth Rs1.3 billion from former Balochistan finance secretary Mushtaq Raisani, sources informed the Geo News.

In May 2016, NAB officials raided Raisani’s office and formally placed him under arrest. They also raided his residence and seized Rs730 million in cash and jewellery worth nearly Rs40 million. Further investigations revealed that the finance secretary also possessed valuable illegal properties in Karachi’s Defence Housing Authority.

Raisani was taken into custody on May 6, 2016 and three days later on May 9, NAB arrested government official Sohail Majeed for allegedly facilitating Raisani in his crimes.

According to information received from sources, the assets recovered from Raisani were obtained through corrupt practices.

Speaking in Quetta earlier Wednesday, Chairman NAB Justice (retired) Javed Iqbal refused to comment on Raisani's case. "Mushtaq Raisani's case in the court. I don't want to comment on it. However, whatever happened in the case is in front of everyone," he said.

The NAB chairman handed over the documents and keys recovered from Raisani to the Quetta interim Chief Minister Alauddin Marri during a ceremony held at the bureau's provincial headquarters.

During the ceremony, Justice (retd) Iqbal said that assets worth Rs650 million were recovered during a raid from Raisani's home. The assets included foreign currencies, prize bonds, and jewellery among other things.

Documents of cars recovered from the former Balochistan finance secretary's DHA residence in Karachi were formally transferred to the provincial government.

In 2017, the team, including Balochistan Finance Department Additional Secretary Ashaq Jamali, along with the Sindh government as well as Karachi DHA officials, started working on transferring the registries of illegal properties to the Balochistan government.

The efforts of the NAB Balochistan investigation team bore fruit as the illegal properties were transferred and handed over to the Balochistan government.