GUJRAT, May 3: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has started a probe into the irregularities committed by the Gujrat municipal committee high-ups in 1998-99 while auctioning around 150 shops in the city, it is learnt.

Sources told this correspondent on Saturday that the three-member NAB team was constituted on the complaint of Tahir Mahmood, a former secretary-general of the Gujrat Bar Association, and currency dealer Mirza Tufail.

It was alleged in the complaint lodged with the NAB chairman that the shops were auctioned at throwaway prices to favourites and several interested people were kept out of the process.

Headed by Rana Nasir Ali, the team met Tehsil Nazim Mian Haroon Masood and TMO Naseer Iqbal on Friday. The team took into custody the entire record of the shops’ auction. Later, the team member visited the sites of the shops along with some officials of the TMA.

According to sources, the team would record statements of traders, shopkeepers, property dealers and tax officials to ascertain the actual value of the auctioned shops.

The team would stay at the district council’s rest house till the completion of the inquiry.

It may be mentioned that the NAB has initiated an inquiry into the auction of these shops for the second time. PML-Q’s district secretary-general Chaudhry Tufail was the chairman of the Gujrat municipal committee when these shops were auctioned.