150 kanal govt land scam worth Rs250 million

PESHAWAR: The Ehtesab Commission (EC), set up by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to tackle corruption, swung into action on Friday when it made its first arrests, including the father of a ruling party lawmaker, in connection with a land scam.
Noor Daraz, a government employee, working as chief coordination officer in Kohat and the father of the PTI MPA, Gul Sahib Khan, was picked up from his hujra in his village in Karak district and brought to Peshawar. He was lodged in the detention cell of the Ehtesab Commission in Peshawar’s Hayatabad town.
A statement by the Ehtesab Commission said Noor Daraz was actively involved in the land scam and was its principal beneficiary. It added that investigation showed Noor Daraz’s involvement in the land grabbing case of over 150 kanal of government property worth Rs250 million in Jarma village in Kohat.
The statement also announced the arrest of four other persons in the scam. Describing them as abettors of the crime, the statement identified them as Mohammad Ghulam, a tehsildar in the Revenue Department, Kamran and Daud who are patwari and girdawar in the same department, and a civilian, Taj Mohammad. The last-named was arrested because the government land was allegedly transferred in his name by the principal accused, Noor Daraz.
The five arrests were made under the Ehtesab Act 2014 to interrogate the accused and complete the investigation before filing the corruption reference against them in the two Ehtesab (accountability) courts that were constituted recently.
It was learnt that the five men would be produced in the accountability court today to seek their physical remand for 90 days for the purpose of interrogation and completion of investigation.
Sources said Noor Daraz and the other four accused had been summoned to the Ehtesab Commission office in Hayatabad, Peshawar, on Friday as it had been decided to apprehend them. However, Noor Daraz didn’t come and a team of the Ehtesab Commission was immediately sent to Kohat and then Karak to nab him. The team finally got him in the third place that it searched. Another among the accused was arrested in Kohat and the other three unsuspecting accused came to the Ehtesab Commission office in Peshawar and were taken into custody.
The Ehtesab Commission had fast-tracked the process to arrest the five accused by getting signed by the governor the new Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission Act, 2015, recently passed by the provincial assembly after three amendments. The amendments gave retrospective effect to the act and paved the way for the Ehtesab Commission to probe cases of corruption and misuse of power from 2004 onwards.
The principal accused Noor Daraz managed to come close to the PTI leadership during the party’s ‘dharna’ against the US drone strikes in Pakistan when its workers blocked supplies for Nato forces in Afghanistan in November 2013. The PTI activists staging the protest sit-in in Hayatabad, Peshawar, enjoyed the hospitality of Noor Daraz as his bungalow was located nearby. Reports at the time said Imran Khan too was invited by Noor Daraz to his house to freshen up and have snacks.
Noor Daraz later secured the PTI ticket for his young son, Gul Sahib Khan, to contest election for one of the two provincial assembly seats from Karak. Gul Sahib Khan won the election and became the youngest MPA in the province. He got married after becoming an MPA.