|
|
|
| April 17, 2003 | Thursday | Safar 14, 1424 |
Former AJK minister, two officials held for corruption
MUZAFFARABAD, April 16: AJK Ehtesab Bureau has arrested a former AJK minister and a main leader of the opposition People’s Party besides two government officials for their alleged involvement in “embezzlement to the tune of millions of rupees in a hydel power project.”
Bureau officials said they had apprehended Khwaja Farooq Ahmed, secretary information of the AJK People’s Party and minister for electricity from 1996 to 1998 in Barrister Sultan-led government, from his residence late on Monday night.
Besides, AJK Hydro Electric Board director Zaheer Ahmed Sheikh was also picked up from his residence around the same time. Both were removed to the bureau’s sub-jail in Thuri locality of the AJK capital.
The former managing director of the AJKHEB, Fazal Mehmood Qureshi, who the bureau officials described as “principal accused”, escaped arrest on Monday night. However, on Tuesday noon he appeared in the bureau office and courted arrest, allegedly after his attempts to obtain pre-arrest bail failed.
Sources close to Khwaja Farooq, who is regarded as a staunch critic of Prime Minister Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan coming out with anti-government statements almost daily, told reporters that he was not formally given any charge sheet before his arrest on Monday.
However, a bureau official told Dawn that the three were picked up for “escalating the cost of 30.4-megawatt Jagran hydro power project from Rs1,848 million to Rs4,401 million, while the contractor (a consortium of French and Swedish firms) was still demanding Rs410 million more.”
“They had delayed the project with mala fide intention to get the cost escalated,” the official claimed.
When reminded that a number of federal government functionaries were also involved in the execution of the project in Neelum valley, he said at least 8-10 more persons would be arrested within the next two days in this case.
However, Khwaja Farooq rejected the official’s charge against him, claiming that he had been victimized for his political affiliation and strong opposition to Prime Minister Hayat.
Talking to this correspondent on the Ehtesab Court premises he said he had only been the vice-chairman of the AJKHEB and not its minister-in-charge.
“I was one of the members of the HEB executive board, headed by the prime minister, in my capacity as minister for electricity. So how can I be responsible for embezzlement, if any, when I did not have any administrative or financial powers,” he said.
“I have been punished for I have been in the frontline opposing the corrupt and inefficient regime.”
He alleged that Sardar Sikandar was the “king of corruption” and the accountability process could be regarded as impartial only when he (PM) was also booked.
“Sardar Sikandar should declare what his fortunes were before and after 1985 (when he became PM for the first time). I will also announce my assets and the people will come to know by themselves who had committed corruption,” he said.
Mr Farooq said he was proud of Jagran project, which was a permanent source of income for Azad Kashmir and had so far contributed around Rs1 billion to AJK.
Meanwhile, the Ehtesab Court Judge Syed Nisar Hussain Shah granted seven days’ physical remand of Mr Farooq and the HEB director to the bureau.
Earlier, the bureau’s chief prosecutor Sardar Ashiq Mehmood pleaded before the judge that Mr Farooq undertook a tour to Paris on contractor’s expense where he changed the design of the powerhouse with mala fide intention which had benefited the contractor. However, when the judge asked if the bureau had any proof of instructions given by the accused in this regard, the chief prosecutor said they should be given some time for that.
Mr Farooq told the judge that for the past three years he had been practising law in Muzaffarabad but the bureau never summoned him to quiz about the project, although he had himself made an offer to that effect.
CONDEMNATION: Meanwhile, PPAJK secretary general and former minister Chaudhry Latif Akbar, former deputy speaker Syed Shoukat Hussain Naqvi, Kashmir council member Syed Mumtaz Naqvi, former minister Syed Manzoor Shah, Hanif Awan and a number of other PPAJK leaders have strongly condemned the arrest of Khwaja Farooq Ahmed, which they said was aimed at “teaching him a lesson for his strong anti-government stance.”
Speaking at a press conference, they pointed out that Mr Farooq had never been incharge minister of the AJKHEB and if any irregularity was committed, he could not be held responsible for that. They said the PPAJK would soon hold a meeting of its central executive committee to decide its course of action following the “unwarranted arrest” of its main leader.
|
|
|
|
