Patwari gets three-year jail, Rs36m fine in corruption case

LAHORE: An accountability court on Thursday convicted a revenue department official (Patwari), M Naveed, for three years imprisonment along with Rs36million fine in a corruption reference filed by the NAB.

The NAB Lahore initiated an inquiry against accused Muhammad Naveed in March 2016 following some secret complaints lodged against him regarding pilling up of assets allegedly disproportionate to his known sources of income.

Moreover, the inquiry proceeding was upgraded into investigation level in December 2016 after discovering multiple unexplained bank transactions of millions landed into the accused bank accounts.

As per the investigation proceedings, accused M Naveed was appointed as Patwari (BPS-5) in 1990 and consequently got dismissed from services as Patwari (BPS-9) in 2016 in terms of PEEDA Act 2006.

The NAB arrested the accused during the course of ongoing investigation in March 2017 and was sent to judicial custody and a corruption reference was filed. The NAB has an overall conviction ratio of 66.8 per cent to stand the accused convicted in courts.