QUETTA: Thirty-five employees of Balochistan government, who were found guilty of simultaneously ‘working’ in two departments and drawing salaries from both, have been arrested, according to National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, he said that following intelligence reports and complaints lodged by the Balochistan chief minister, the NAB’s provincial wing had arrested 35 employees, who were simultaneously working in two government departments. The services of the employees have been terminated.

The services of four employees of NAB were terminated after they were found involved in misappropriation and corruption, he said. A departmental inquiry is being conducted against eight other employees of the bureau.

Also read: NAB to look into wealth of ex-minister, wife

“Last year, the NAB’s Balochistan wing completed 70 inquiries, filed 24 references and is still investigating 26 cases,” he said.

Mr Chaudhry disclosed that massive corruption had been detected in the Zhob-Mir Ali road project. Because of timely action of the bureau, he said, the budgetary allocation for the project had been decreased to Rs7 billion from Rs12bn.

“An inquiry has been launched against some government employees in the case,” he said and added that NAB would not accept any political pressure in this regard.

Answering a question, he said NAB had not received any complaint about alleged corruption in Reko-Diq copper-cum-gold project.

He said the NAB’s Balochistan wing had recovered Rs133 million from government employees and others who had misappropriated funds for different projects.

It received complaints against more than 35 employees who have obtained government jobs while using fake education certificates.

Referring to a Modaraba case, he said Rs22 billion had been misappropriated by different fake Islamic investment companies. “The NAB has received about 40,000 complaints pertaining to fraud in the name of Modaraba, arrested 29 accused and recovered Rs2bn from them.”

In response to another question, the NAB chairman said two cases against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif were under trial while inquiries in other cases against him were under way.

Published in Dawn February 14th , 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play