PESHAWAR: Officials of the National Accountability Bureau, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on Thursday raided the house of former chief minister Ameer Haider Hoti’s brother Ghazan Hoti in Mardan after the issuance of his arrest warrants by the bureau’s chairman in the weapons procurement scam, official sources said.

An official said that a NAB team headed by senior investigation officers retired Col Hussain Afridi and Enayat Khan raided Mr Ghazan’s residence on Mardan-Nowshera road, but he could not be apprehended as he had allegedly left the country.

Mr Ghazan’s brother-in-law, Raza Ali Khan, was earlier arrested by the NAB on Jan 7 and he had now been imprisoned in Peshawar central prison. Mr Raza is accused of receiving Rs198 million from Arshid Majeed – a private contractor to whom most of the contracts of procurement were awarded – of which he kept Rs3 million for himself and handed over Rs195 million to Mr Ghazan.

An official confided to Dawn that NAB chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry had issued the arrest warrants for Ghazan a few days ago after the investigation officers concluded that as he had not been appearing before the officers for questioning his arrest was necessary.

He said that when the raiding team visited the residence they came to know that Ghazan was not present there and had in fact gone abroad a few weeks ago to avoid arrest.

The prime suspect in the case, Malik Naveed, who is a former provincial police officer, was arrested on Nov 20.

Meanwhile, an accountability court presided over by Mr Shamsher Ali Khan extended the judicial remand of Mr Naveed and Mr Raza for further 14 days and directed that they should be produced again on March 13.

The suspect, Mr Raza, was produced before the court on Thursday, whereas Mr Naveed, who is presently admitted to hospital, could not be produced apparently because of some ailment.

An official of the NAB told the court that a reference against the suspects could not be filed as investigation was still in progress.