NAB Karachi recommends cases against Siraj Durrani, Kamran Michael

KARACHI: The National Accountability Bureau on Tuesday decided and recommended corruption cases against former PML-N minister Kamran Michael, Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani and senior PIA officers.

DG NAB Karachi Brig (R) Farooq Naser Awan reiterated the resolve to retrieve illegal lands of the state and looted money to be restored to national exchequer with more efforts of investigating teams.

Subsequent to completion of complaint verification process, case was recommended to NAB HQ for authorization of inquiry in a corruption matter of Pakistan International Airline (PIA).

As per details, an ATR 42-500 was illegally grounded by senior management in April 2014 which accrued loss to PIA to the tune of millions of rupees. The plane would have been otherwise functional and airworthy with routine maintenance. But the plane was grounded in violation of aviation regulations, with the intention of stealing its parts and rendering its status as scrap.

In another corruption case of PIA, complaint was recommended for approval of formal inquiry in which PIA awarded illegal agreement to a private logistics company M/s Leisure Cargo for utilisation of its cargo space for 3 years from 2016 to 2019 at low and uncompetitive rates for extending illegal favour to the company. It suffered violation of approval of Board and agreement was tampered which led to loss to the national carrier of millions of dollars.

The DG issued directions that other PIA matters may be looked into thoroughly for conclusion of complaints related to PIA at the earliest.

An investigation was authorised after completion of inquiry against M/s Humair Associates regarding Gulshan e Roomi Housing Project on allegations of cheating public at large.

It was established that the builder after receiving amounts in millions from 104 allottees, had failed to hand over possession of plots to them since 1979. The value of plots is approximately Rs 600 million.

The board also recommended to Chairman NAB for approval of Reference against Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani after completion of investigation.

The board was apprised that the accused had accumulated assets beyond known sources of income worth Rs 1.6 billion much beyond his declared assets.

The assets were held by the accused, his family and various benamidars who have been recommended for trial. There are certain benamidars who are personal servants of the accused and his family.

Regional Board also made recommendation to Chairman NAB for approval of Supplementary Reference against Senator Kamran Michael against whom further evidence was collected regarding his role in receiving bribe of amount Rs 110 million through bank accounts of his friends and benamidars, for illegal sale of plots of KPT Cooperative Housing Society.

He purchased various properties in his brother’s name with the bribe money. The Supplementary Reference will be filed against him and other accused persons after approval of Competent Authority.