NAB arrests accused in Rs340m embezzlement case

PESHAWAR: The National Accountability Bureau, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has arrested an accused, Nawab Khan, for his alleged involvement in embezzlement of Rs340 million. The amount was allocated for Housing Uniform Assistance Subsidy Project for the Temporarily Displaced Persons (TDPs) from erstwhile Bajaur Agency.

Under the project, the government of Pakistan with the assistance of USAID paid around 2.5 billion in Bajaur as compensation to TDPs whose houses had been damaged in the military operation against the miscreants, said an official communiqué.

Under the project, Rs 400,000/- were paid to each individual whose houses had been damaged, while Rs160,000/- were paid to owners of the partially damaged houses. During the course of the investigation, it was discovered that accused Nawab Khan in connivance with others prepared fake survey forms of ghost and ineligible affectees in Bajaur.

He then got included fake forms in the payment lists already prepared after a survey conducted by political administration Bajaur. The accused got approved the payment list containing such fake forms, causing huge loss of Rs.340million to the exchequer. He had absconded legal proceedings. The case is under trial in an accountability court. A 14 days physical custody of the accused was given to NAB by the accountability court.

It merits a mention here that Rs 110 million were recovered from other co-accused through plea bargain while Arshad Khan, former DG FDMA and Irfanullah, former assistant director, FDMA were arrested in the case and are on bail.