ISLAMABAD: The Natio­nal Accountability Bureau (NAB) filed on Thursday a reference against a former chief of Pakistan Public Works Department (PWD), Shah Din Sheikh, and seven other officials for allegedly committing corruption in the construction of a highway in Gujar Khan last year.

In the reference filed in the accountability court at Islamabad, the officials were accused of corruption and corrupt practices and misuse of authority in the award of contracts for civil works and road construction in the constituency of former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf (from Ratial Chowk to Chakbeli Khan Road), said a NAB spokesperson, adding that they had caused a loss of Rs48.724 million to the national exchequer.

The reference did not mention Mr Ashraf’s name. However, he was one of the accused in the case along with officials of Pak-PWD as the project was said to have been conceived on his orders.

A source in Pak-PWD said more than 200 uplift projects were launched in Mr Ashraf’s constituency, NA-51, and all were being investigated by NAB.

Of these projects, two pertain to the construction of highways that were to be constructed at a cost Rs6 billion. They were: Mandra-Chakwal Road, involving a cost of Rs2.7bn and Sohawa-Chakwal Road estimated to cost of Rs3.3bn.

NAB initiated investigation into the uplift schemes in Gujar Khan on the directives of the Supreme Court as Mr Ashraf was accused of illegally allocating Rs52bn development funds during his nine-month tenure in the last PPP government.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2014