ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau Wednesday decided to reopen more than 40 high-profile corruption cases against politicians including PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif and Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, which were pending for the last six years.
The decision was taken in a meeting of the executive board of the National Accountability Bureau chaired by its chairman Admiral (Retd) Fashi Bukhari.
The board formed a committee under the chairmanship of Prosecutor General Accountability, K.K Agha, to review all politically motivated cases framed during the tenure of General (Retd) Pervez Musharraf against the politicians and legislators.
Fashi Bokhari expressed his displeasure over the delay in the submission of cases which were pending for want of action on one pretext or the other and directed the concerned officials to put up those cases for decisions as early as possible. Chairman NAB also directed that if an accused is punished in one case the other case against him should not be prolonged and the decision should be taken on merit.
Earlier a special committee was set up to look into these cases and submit them to the board for decision, as there was no substantial evidence available to prove these cases. The special committee was also working under the Prosecutor general Accountability K. K Agha.
The executive board also decided to hand over Rawalpindi Employees Cooperative Housing as well as National Assembly Cooperative Housing Society scams to the special operations divisions for further investigations.
The concerned officials were given a deadline of one week to complete the inquiry against Tariq Ayub Khakwani, the main accused of misuse of authority in the National Assembly Cooperative Housing Society.
It is to be mentioned here that last year the NA special committee on the National Assembly Cooperative Housing Scheme headed by Sheikh Waqas Akram had identified five employees of the National Assembly and Islamabad administration who were involved in the multi-billion scam of the housing society. They were Shahid Hussain Jilani, ex-president of NAECHS management committee Salamat Ali, ex-deputy commissioner/registrar ICT, Asadullah Faiz, Malik Din and Tariq Khan Khakwani and recommended actions against them.
The committee had asked the interior ministry to place their names on the Exit Control List. According to National Assembly special committee’s report that was presented in the National Assembly last year, Tariq Khakwani was found guilty of irregularities, mal-practices and misappropriations of the society’s funds as he caused illegal drainage of deposits of the members of the society amounting to Rs212.5 million on account of the development work without approval of layout plan and NOC.
According to the report, the committee sought the recovery of Rs7390000 from Tariq Khakwani on account of payments made for purchase of land that has not been transferred and asked the FIA to look into the matter that the 92 Kanals and 17 marlas of land purchased by him is not in compact block.
Apart from 30 kanals retrieved by this inquiry committee the rest of the land is not suitable and he further purchased 7.5 kanals of land that was already mortgaged to some one else and Rs90 million were misspent under this head.
The committee found Tariq Khakwani responsible for losses to the tune of Rs98120260 and asked the FIA to prosecute him and either the amount be deposited into the society’s account or equivalent development work be carried out at the site of NAECHS.
The executive board authorized inquiry against LDI telecom companies for failure to pay the annual licence fee and other allied service charges. It was also decided that the case of M/s Xtreme Defence System Karachi be referred to the Federal Bureau of Revenue for recovery of duties and taxes on the import of equipment.
The board instructed early completion of investigation against town officers of the Municipal Administration Rawalpindi. The cases of misuse of authority by officials in the Teachers Training Programme, Bashir Ahmed Farooqi, former DOR Rawalpindi Tariq Mehmood, Former Secretary RTA, former deputy director Punjab and Housing and Town Planning Agency Rawalpindi Khaliq-ur-Rehman, former regional manager of defunct SBFC Hasnat Khan Kiyani while inquiries against ex-DDG CDA Muhammad Iqbal Noor and former deputy superintendent customs for assets beyond their known sources were closed after detailed deliberations.
