Former KP police chief remanded to NAB in weapons scam
PESHAWAR: The Accountability Court No 1 on Thursday remanded former Inspector General of Police Malik Naveed Khan to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) KP for 14-days for further investigation in the weapons scam.
The Accountability Court Judge Walayat Ali Khan heard arguments from the accused counsel and the prosecutor.
Malik Naveed was arrested by NAB on Wednesday for his alleged corruption in the purchase of weapons and equipment for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police during 2008-2010
Saddiq Ahmed Qureishi who represented the former police chief pleaded not guilty arguing that other people were responsible for the graft and his client had nothing to do with the case.
Naveed and others are accused of embezzeling Rs.1.8 billion.
In 2008-10 the provincial government had released Rs7 billion in 2008-10 for purchase of weapons, vehicles and other equipment to equip the KPK police for fighting terrorism and to control law and order.
Sources say that most of the equipment and weapons later turned out to be substandard and there are also reports that some politicians and their advisors in the former ANP-PPP coalition government were also allegedly involved in the scam.
The contractor Arshad Majeed had turned approver in the case and had told the court about the alleged kickbacks received by various government functionaries in the case.
In September, a colonel and three majors were sacked from military service after it emerged that they had accepted kickbacks while inspecting arms purchased by the KP government for the police in 2010.
The sacked officers are alleged to have accepted Rs11 million from a contractor to give a clean bill of health to weapons, ammunition, bullet-proof jackets and bullet-proof helmets which were then supplied to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police department.