September 26, 2003	Friday	Rajab 28, 1424

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PESHAWAR, Sept 25: The National Accountability Bureau has filed a reference before an accountability court against an absconding project director of a Swiss-funded project.

Spread over three volumes, the reference has charged project director Fasihuzzaman with embezzling Rs27.56 million of the Small Scale Enterprise Promotion funded by the Swiss Development and Cooperation.

Last year, NAB had arrested project’s manager coordination Abdul Manan in the same case. He was released after he paid Rs600,000 to the government following the acceptance of his plea bargain by the NAB’s chairman.

Earlier, NAB had received a request from the Swiss Ambassador in Islamabad for initiating a probe into misappropriation of funds by the SSEP officials. After preliminary inquiry, the officials were found involved in large-scale financial irregularities.

The project was initiated within the framework of the Agreement on Technical and Scientific Cooperation between the Swiss and Pakistan governments.

It was conceived in 1994 as a pilot project for small enterprise development and entrusted to the Swiss Contact, an NGO, for implementation.

The development cooperation programme was formed initially for three years (1995-97). Later, it was twice extended up to 2001.