ISLAMABAD, Nov 18: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had been undertaking a probe into the allegations of corruption levelled against the railways minister, a bureau spokesman said.

He said on Monday that a politician, Siddique-ul-Farooq, had submitted some documents before the officer concerned, which according to him revealed the alleged wrongdoing in the Ministry of Railways.

The railways officials concerned were called at the bureau along with the relevant record to ascertain the facts.

According to APP, the spokesman clarified that the allegations were being investigated, and it would take sometime before the inquiry reaches the final conclusion.

Our Staff Reporter adds: The information secretary of PML-N, Siddiqul Farooq, has wrote a letter to NAB Chairman Lt-Gen Munir Hafeez accusing Railways Minister Javed Ashraf Qazi and other high officials of causing a Rs.3 billion loss to the exchequer in a purchase contract of 175 railway coaches from China.

Speaking at a news conference here on Sunday, Farooq released a copy of the letter which reveals that the contract of importing the coaches from China was done though the Islamabad carriage factory had the capability of building 120 coaches of international standard every year.

He called upon the NAB chief to seize relevant record if it was not done so far and attested copies thereof might also be provided to him so that he could help the bureau with legal and audit experts.

Under the agreement signed with China on Nov 8, 2002, for the purchase of 175 coaches— 40 of them completely build-up and remaining 135 to be produced in Islamabad carriage factory— the country would have to pay Rs3 billion more than what it would have cost on building these coaches locally, the letter says.

According to experts, a first class sleeper imported from China under this contract would cost Rs30.045 million, five times high than what would have cost in the carriage factory and far better in quality.

He alleged that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had been offered Chinese coaches during his visit to China as admitted by Ashraf Qazi in a television interview on Oct 28 last, but the said offer had been rejected on the ground that the country was self-reliant in the manufacturing of railway coaches.