Ehtesab Commission arrests another official

PESHAWAR: The Ehtesab Commission Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Wednesday arrested Sajid Jadoon, a former secretary Excise and Taxation Department presently posted as secretary Industries for his alleged involvement in illegal purchase of weapons, wireless sets, sub-standard bullet-proof jackets and vehicles conversion/procurement resulting in loss of millions of rupees to the exchequer.
An official told The News that a team of the Ehtesab Commission arrested Sajid Jadoon during a successful raid as he did not want to surrender in the case.
As per the official communiqué issued by the Ehtesab Commission, Sajid Jadoon as secretary Excise and Taxation was found involved in illegal retention of the confiscated vehicles in the department against the rules and regulations. It added that he allotted the vehicles to the people of his choice and thus misused his authority with malafide intention.
The Ehtesab Commission official said the detained secretary Industries would be produced before the Ehtesab Court for obtaining his physical remand today. Separately, the Ehtesab Commission also obtained eight days physical remand of two officials of the Excise and Taxation Department who were arrested earlier on charges of corruption and corrupt practices.
Ehtesab Court Judge Subhan Sher granted eight days physical remand of the accused persons to the Ehtesab Commission.
Additional Deputy Prosecutor General, Qazi Babar Irshad, appeared in the case and requested the court to grant further remand of the accused officials for conducting investigation in the case. The Ehtesab Commission had arrested Muhammad Khalid, an in-charge of the provincial warehouse of Excise and Taxation Department, and Ijlal Babar, a protocol officer in the same department. They were charged with corruption and corrupt practices under Section 23 of the Ehtesab Act 2014.
The charges against them included illegally issuing seized vehicles from the warehouse and embezzling millions of rupees in purchase of arms and bullet-proof jackets for the department.
Earlier, the Commission had obtained 13 days physical custody of the two officers.
The arrest of Muhammad Khalid and Ijlal Babar and their investigation apparently provided enough evidence to apprehend Sajid Jadoon, the former secretary of the Excise and Taxation department. All three have been accused of corruption.