NAB board’s green light for probe against Akram Durrani, others

ISLAMABAD: The Executive Board of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Tuesday gave go ahead for an inquiry against ex-federal minister for housing and works and Opposition Leader in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Akram Khan Durrani and officials of the ministry.

The board also approved an investigation against Umer Manzoor, son of Rukhsana Bangash, former MNA and political secretary to former president Asif Ali Zardari. The board met at the NAB Headquarters under the chairmanship of Chairman Justice (R) Javed Iqbal.

Deputy chairman, prosecutor general accountability, director general operations, director general NAB, Rawalpindi, and other senior officers of NAB attended the meeting. The board authorized a reference against the officers/officials of Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The accused persons allegedly inflicted heavy losses on the national exchequer by selling the Pakistan Embassy building in Jakarta (Indonesia) in violation of rules and regulations by misusing their authority.

The board authorized investigation against Arif Ibrahim, Senior Joint Secretary, Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination. The board authorized five inquiries against Umer Manzoor, officials of Ministry of Housing and Works and others, former secretary works Gilgit-Baltistan Syed Akhtar Hussain Rizvi and two separate inquiries against Akram Khan Durrani, former minister for housing and works, officers/officials of the ministry, management and others of job testing services. The board authorized complaint verification against the officers/officials and others of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony.

The board okayed referring back an ongoing inquiry against the officers/officials and others of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to NAB Rawalpindi bureau for further examination as per law.

Justice (R) Javed Iqbal said the NAB strongly believed in accountability for all policy and during the last about 28 months the bureau had recovered Rs178 billion directly and indirectly and deposited it in the national exchequer.

He said prestigious national and international institutions, especially the World Economic Forum, had appreciated the NAB performance. He said as many as 1,229 references involving accumulated amount of Rs943 billion were under trial in different accountability courts.

He urged the people and regulators to play their due role in nabbing illegal housing societies/cooperative housing societies.” “The media should also have a look at the legal position of a housing society whether it has sufficient land on ground, layout plan has been approved, and NOC has been issued by the regulator concerned as per law before airing/publishing any advertisements of housing societies,” he said.