Ehtesab Commission gets 14-day remand of Ziaullah Afridi’s friend

PESHAWAR: The Ehtesab Commission Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Tuesday obtained 14-day physical remand of Naheed Khan, who is said to be a close friend of former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf minister Ziaullah Afridi for his alleged involvement in illegal mining.
The officials of Ehtesab Commission produced the accused, who is owner of the firm Sahara Mining before the Ehtesab Court headed by Judge Subhan Sher for obtaining his physical remand.
Additional Deputy Prosecutor General of Ehtesab Commission Qazi Babar Irshad informed the court that they had arrested the accused on Monday on charges of illegal mining of phosphate in Abbottabad.
He submitted that the Naheed Khan, said to be a close friend and business partner of the detained former provincial minister, was extracting phosphate illegally from another block. He said the accused had no authorization to do mining there and had caused millions of rupees loss to the exchequer.
Qazi Babar Irshad prayed the court to grant physical remand of the accused to
the Ehtesab Commission to enable it to investigate the case. Earlier, the Ehtesab Commission had obtained the physical remand of the former Ziaullah Afridi and Director General Mines and Minerals Dr Liaqat Ali in the illegal mining of phosphate by the Sahara Mining Company in Abbottabad.
It claimed that a loss of about Rs1.2 billion had been inflicted on the exchequer due to illegal mining. Separately, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, got further two days remand of the former District Education Officer Lakki Marwat, Noor Hassan for his alleged involvement in corruption and misuse of authority in illegal appointment of teachers and technical staff in the Education Department in Lakki Marwat. The NAB had earlier got his 10-day remand.
During the course of hearing, NAB prosecutor Danial Chamkani submitted before the accountability court that the accused had made more than 127 illegal appointments during his service. As per the official communiqué, the accused Noor Hassan performed his duties as EDO (Education) in Lakki Marwat from 2009 to 2011. During his tenure, it said, he made illegal appointments in different cadres.
The National Accountability Bureau claimed the accused made appointments through his handpicked unlawful committees. It said some appointment orders were issued prior to the advertisement of the posts in newspapers. It stated the approval of the district selection committee was not obtained in most of the appointments.