KARACHI: An accountability court has issued warrants for arrest of as many as 50 suspects nominated in a case pertaining to alleged misappropriation and money laundering of Rs3.2 billion from government pension funds.

Judge Suresh Kumar of the Accountability Court-IV directed the investigating officer of the National Accountability Bureau to arrest and produce the suspects in court on Aug 31.

As many as 13 suspects, including former additional district accounts officer (ADAO) Mushtaq Ahmed Sheikh, are currently in the custody of NAB while 43 are on bail.

In May, NAB had filed a reference against 85 suspects stating that a probe recovered 5,433 pension bills and 130 refund bills while searching the house of ex-ADAO Shaikh.

It added that 1,756 pension bills/vouchers pertaining to the MCB Bank were sorted out, which were signed and processed by the then ADAOs at different times.

The probe found these pension bills fake having fake Pension Pay Order (PPO) numbers and the same were deposited in the bank accounts of the persons other than the names mentioned on the vouchers and 137 bank accounts of 59 individuals, most of them belonged to accused Aijaz Dawach and his family members and friends.

These 137 accounts were operated at three branches of the MCB Bank during the period between 2010 and 2017, it added.

The investigation revealed that total value of these 1,756 fake pension bills/vouchers was Rs1.165bn, which were not processed as per Accounting Policies and Procedures Manual (APPM) issued by the government applicable on federal and provincial governments.

The banking analysis revealed that another amount to the tune of Rs1.8bn was also credited from the government funds. After getting cleared these payments from the State Bank of Pakistan the amount of pension was posted and credited into the accounts of private persons.

The State Bank of Pakistan debited the Sindh government’s account and transferred the requisite pension funds to the corresponding bank branch, officials of which credited these pension funds into the accounts of private unrelated/unauthorised persons. The bank officials later on facilitated the accused persons with cash withdrawal of the deposited money.

NAB alleged bank officials Junejo Bahadur Ali, Abdul Hafeez Lund, Siraj Ali Mastoi, Azhar Hussain Hingoro and Altaf Gorar opened fake bank accounts in active connivance with private individuals as well as government officers and laundered the money.

It accused suspect Noor Ahmed of using his official identity for the release of funds of millions of rupees from the Sindh finance department in favour of the DAO Hyderabad for more than eight years.

Ex-ADAO Shaikh, during his posting as section officer-budget in the fiscal years 2015-16 and 2016-17, paid an amount of Rs4.6bn for pension without any authority.

Suspect Amir Zia Isran, who also remained posted as the section officer in the finance department as well as SO to the Chief Minister Secretariat from 2009 to 2017, took a bribe from accused Noor Ahmed.

NAB claimed all 84 suspects misappropriated Rs3.2bn from the pension accounts in DAO Hyderabad through fake pension vouchers and fake agriculture refund vouchers, causing losses to the exchequer.

It said they committed an offence punishable under the provisions of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 and the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2022