QUETTA: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested the former mayor and city nazim of the Quetta Metropolitan Corporation, Mir Maqbool Ahmed Lehri, in a corruption case after his application for pre-arrest bail was rejected by a division bench of the Balochistan High Court (BHC) on Thursday.
NAB has been looking into the charges of corruption, illegal allotment of state land and misuse of powers by Mr Lehri. A NAB team took the ex-mayor into custody from the court premises after the rejection of his bail application by the BHC bench comprising Justice Kamran Khan Mulahkhail and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan. Mr Lehri was lodged in the District Jail Quetta soon after an accountability court judge granted the judicial remand to NAB after hearing its prosecutor.
A NAB spokesman said that the suspect had allotted prime land worth millions of rupees through his frontman by misusing his powers as mayor and nazim.
NAB had filed a reference and started investigation against Mr Lehri in 2014.
“Mr Lehri, as nazim of the Quetta Metropolitan Corporation, misused his official powers and was found involved in illegal allotment of official land,” the spokesman said, adding that the court had issued warrants for his arrest, but he had secured provisional bail from the high court.
Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2016
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