ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is expanding the scope of its investigation against alleged corruption and irregularities in different departments of Sindh, particularly in Karachi, and has decided to open two new cases.

On Wednesday, the bureau’s executive board authorised an inquiry against officials of the Workers Welfare Board (WWB) and the revenue department of Gadap town in Karachi.

According to NAB’s spokesman, the officials were accused of purchasing 66.25 acres of land in Deh Allah Phiai area through forgery in revenue record, thus causing a loss of Rs243.8 million to the national exchequer.

The executive board’s meeting also approved an inquiry against officers of Sindh police for alleged embezzlement of funds in procurement of armoured vehicles and CCTV cameras and misappropriation of POL funds.

Last week, NAB Karachi arrested Manzar Abbas, Chairman of Benazir Housing Cell (BHC), for allegedly misappropriating Rs367.5m of the cell’s funds. He was accused of making fake calculations for issuing illegal cheques to M/s Fiza Social Welfare Organisation, the NAB spokesman said.

Before this arrest, NAB was investigating two other cases relating to the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA). The first case was against Manzoor Qadir, former director general of the SBCA, who along with other officials of the authority was accused of being involved in corruption and misuse of authority.

The second case was against SBCA’s former director Nisar Ansari, who is in NAB’s custody on physical remand.

On June 15, Rangers raided the SBCA reportedly over illegal construction and ‘China cutting’ (illegal plotting of state-owned land) in Karachi. They seized relevant record and important data and interrogated SBCA staff over such unlawful practices and alleged involvement in these of the authority’s former director general.

The PPP-led Sindh government strongly reacted to the Rangers’ `raid’. PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar alleged in the upper house of parliament on June 18 that a plan appeared to be afoot to dislodge the Sindh government and the raid was aimed at taking control of its functions.

NAB also decided to file a corruption reference against Imdad Ullah, Director of the Institute of Chemical Sciences, University of Peshawar, and others for allegedly misusing their authority and causing a loss of Rs12.5m to the exchequer.

The bureau authorised an inquiry against Abdul Ghafoor Lehri, Balochistan’s former minister for industries and commerce. He is accused of amassing assets worth Rs8 billion beyond his known source of income.

The meeting approved two investigations. The first is against Sahibzada Riaz Noor, former chief secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; and KP communication and works department’s former project director Sohail Bin Qayyum and its ex-secretary Zahid Arif. They are accused of misusing their authority and illegally reinstating Zahid Arif.

The second investigation was authorised against Ahsanullah Khan, officials of the KP revenue department and others for allegedly misusing authority and making illegal appointment and promotion of revenue staff.

The meeting assigned an inquiry into the privatisation of MCB Bank to NAB Rawalpindi under NAB Ordinance.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2015

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