ISLAMABAD, Jan 28: Ten officials of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) visit to Geneva (Switzerland) from June 2004 to November 2005 incurred Rs2.44 million to national exchequer.

They visited Geneva apparently in connection with SGS case hearing against Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairperson and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in a Swiss court.

This was stated by Minister Incharge of the Prime Minister’s Secretariat Sher Afgan Niazi in a written reply to a question of political secretary to Ms Bhutto and MNA Naheed Khan in the National Assembly here on Friday.

Giving names of the NAB officials, the minister said that former NAB chairman Lt-Gen Munir Hafiz, Irfan Qadir and Najamus Saqib Shabbir visited Geneva in June-July 2004 incurring Rs769,319 expenditure.

He said that Attorney General of Pakistan Makhdoom Ali Khan, Irfan Qadir, Najamus Saqib Shabbir and legal consultant Mirza Nasar Ahmed again visited Geneva in September 2005 causing an expenditure of Rs1.009 million. In November 2005, deputy NAB chairman Hassan Wasim Afzal, Irfan Qadir and Najamus Saqib Shabbir again went to Geneva and Rs666,883 were spent on the visit.

Replying to another question of MNA Ambareen Naeem, the minister said that a total of 29 NAB officials had undertaken foreign visits on which over Rs7.8 million had been spent.

To a question of MNA Sabir Hussain Awan, the minister told the National Assembly that a total of 1,337 employees were presently working in 13 offices of NAB throughout the country. He said that NAB Headquarters was in Islamabad, while it had established its three offices in Punjab, three in Sindh, three in NWFP, two in Rawalpindi and one in Balochistan.

He said there were 349 employees in NAB Headquarters in Islamabad, 245 in Lahore office, 236 in Karachi, 156 in Peshawar and 159 in Quetta. The number of NAB employees in other cities are: Rawalpindi (154); Multan (6); Faisalabad (6); Hyderabad (4); Sukkur (4); Abbottabad (6); DI Khan (6) and Gilgit (6).