Ex-PPP minister, 9 others remanded

PESHAWAR: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Friday got 12 days physical remand of Pakistan People’s Party’s former provincial minister Nawabzada Mehmood Zeb and nine officials who were arrested the day before on charges of illegal allotment of government reserves of phosphate for mining to a schoolteacher causing Rs360 million loss to the exchequer.
The accountability court headed by Muhammad Ibrahim Khan handed over the former provincial minister and the nine co-accused to the NAB for further investigation into the case.The NAB prosecutor Daniyal Chamkani had sought 14 days physical remand of the accused. However, the court allowed 12 days physical remand.
The accused were brought to the court amid strict security. Most of them had held high positions in the government or were still in service. The NAB alleged that Nawabzada Mahmood Zeb, a leader of the PPP who was provincial minister for technical education, industries and mineral department in the previous ANP-PPP provincial government, with the connivance of the nine other nine suspects misused his authority to illegally allot 500 acres of a mine with proven deposits of phosphate to a schoolteacher, Rukhsana Javed, who illegally did excavation in collaboration with the first cousin of the minister Ehtishamul Mulk and jointly caused a loss of Rs360 million to the exchequer.
The other nine accused include the then secretary technical education and minerals, Shah Wali Khan, the then additional secretary of the department, Asmatullah Khan Gandapur who later served as commissioner Bannu division, section officer Farhad Ali, deputy director of the department, Khan Badshah, geologist at the directorate of mines and minerals, Nauroz Khan, senior inspector of mines presently serving as commissioner mines, Ziarat Khan, the then director licensing of minerals department, Shakirullah, assistant director (litigation) of mineral department, Pervaiz Khan, and assistant director, Ehtishamul Mulk.
The NAB alleged that in 2008 Nawabzada Mehmood Zeb with the connivance of other suspects acted illegally to unlawfully allot 500 acres of the phosphate-rich area to Rukhsana Javed through prospecting licence. “The minister also issued illegal directives to the relevant officials to process the application of the schoolteacher despite its rejection by his department as evident from the record,” the NAB claimed.