Another accused arrested in NHA bogus payment case

LAHORE: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) made another arrest in National Highways Authority (NHA) scam, The News has learnt.

The bureau arrested one Aijaz Husain from Bahawalpur, manager of a private bank. As per NAB, the accused in assistance of other accused opened 56 bogus accounts and an amount of Rs 30 million was transferred in bogus accounts. Earlier, the bureau had arrested a former assistant treasury officer, Muhammad Ismail, after his name was pointed out by under arrest accused NHA Director Shaukat Hussain.

The NAB accused Muhammad Ismail of transferring money by using fake signatures. Previously, the NAB had arrested NHA Director Shaukat Hussain and three others including Land Accusation Collector (NLA) Naveed Murad and two Deputy Accountants Hassan Mehmood and Muhammad Faroque over the charges of causing a loss of Rs 60 million to national kitty through bogus payments. The NAB had initiated an inquiry against the accused on a complaint filed by NHA chairman in 2017.

Two parking company officials sent on remand: An accountability court on Wednesday sent two officials of Lahore Parking Company to jail on 13-day judicial remand. The court sent chief executive officer of the company Taseer Ahmed and chief financial officer Usman Qayyum to jail. The NAB accused them of violating PPRA rules and illegally awarding contract to the NTG and Green Park, causing loss of millions of rupees to the national exchequer.