April 09, 2007	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 20, 1428

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KOHAT, April 8: The Peshawar office of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has resumed inquiries into three cases against Tehsil Municipal Officer (TMO) Noor Daraz Khattak on charges of embezzling Rs23.7 million and accumulating wealth beyond his known sources of income while serving in Kohat district.

According to details of an under-trial case, an assistant of the TMO in the rent collection department, Naeem Akhtar, had been charged by the anti-corruption department with taking away with Rs2.7 million in April last year. In his initial statement, Akhtar said that the TMO was also equally involved in the scam. There are 125 names of witnesses mentioned in a 200 page report prepared by the NAB and Kohat’s anti-corruption department against the accused.

An official said that both the accused would be served with a charge sheet on April 7 and might be arrested. Even after thorough investigations conducted by the local government department, local audit section, DIG Special Branch Peshawar, NAB, corps commander Peshawar and the anti-corruption branch, the TMO was transferred to Peshawar and posted on a lucrative position there. Khattak is presently serving as TMO in Town-1 of that area, which is known as one of the richest tehsils in the NWFP.

An official said that Khattak was not suspended from service due to his connections in high places. Khattak was also found involved in various corruption cases while serving in Karak, Hangu and Kohat districts.

While serving in Hangu as TMO, Khattak had allegedly misappropriated Rs3.5 million. He awarded illegal contracts at throwaway rates and did not deposit the money with the government accounts. According to two different reports, one prepared by the DIG Special Branch Peshawar in October 2005 and the other by the office of the corps commander Peshawar in August 2002, he had been found guilty of accumulating illegal wealth and living beyond his means.

The DIG Special Branch in his report said that "(in spite of) belonging to a poor family background he owns a personal car, a bungalow in the posh KDA locality while his son, Omar Daraz did his MBBS from a private medical college in Karachi under the self-finance scheme. His yearly tuition fees and other expenditure had been confirmed at more than Rs600,000 which a grade 16 officer like his father could not afford.”

However, the DIG Special Branch requested not to present his findings in any court of law for supporting the corruption case against the TMO because the report had been marked secret. The Peshawar corps commander report, also marked confidential, said that while in Hangu, Khattak had auctioned some government shops for Rs1.62 million but deposited only Rs0.5milion with the government’s account.