PESHAWAR: An accountability court on Monday extended the remand of ANP leader Syed Masoom Shah in the custody of the National Accountability Bureau, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, for 10 days in an illegal assets case.

The NAB had produced Shah, who was the former special assistant to former chief minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti and was arrested on Aug 11, before the judge of accountability court, Tariq Yousafzai, after completion of his physical custody of 12 days with it.

NAB special prosecutor Danyal Asad Chamkani had requested the court to further remand the suspect in the custody of the bureau as investigation had still been in progress regarding his assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

He said the NAB had recovered 39 gold bars owned by the suspect and concealed by him in a bank locker.

Masoom Shah’s remand extended in illegal assets case

Chamkani said the each seized gold bar weighed around 10 tolas, which was around 4.5kg, and valued millions of rupees.

He presented pictures of the allegedly recovered gold in the court and said the suspect had purchased them through ill-gotten money.

The suspect had remained nazim of tehsil Shabqadar in Charssada from 2001 to 2004 and subsequently served as special assistant to then chief minister Ameer Haider Hoti during 2010 to 2013 when the ANP-PPP coalition ruled the province.

The NAB has claimed that the then chief minister was holding portfolio of communication and works and public health engineering departments.

It alleged that Syed Masoom Shah was involved in postings and transfers in the said departments in violation of rules.

The properties allegedly possessed by him include a hujra on 12 kanals of land at his village Batagram in Charssada; two plots each in Hayatabad Township, Regi Model Town and DHA Karachi; a precious house in Bahria Town Rawalpindi; one kanal house in Zaryab Colony, Peshawar; three kanals of precious land in Tehkal Bala Peshawar; and a kanal of land in Warsak Road Peshawar.

Meanwhile, former director general of Fata Disaster Management Authority, Arshad Khan and assistant director Irfanullah were further remanded in the custody of NAB by the accountability judge for five days each in a case of the Rs300 million embezzlement in Housing Uniform Assistance Subsidy for militancy affected people of Bajaur Agency.

Both the suspects were earlier arrested in another case of misappropriation of funds meant for payment of compensation for damaged properties to conflict affected people of Mohmand Agency. While the suspect Irfanullah was earlier set free after his plea bargain application was accepted as he had agreed to return back Rs10 million to the NAB, suspect Arshad Khan was still behind bars when they were booked in the instant case.

They were earlier presented before the court on Aug 12 and were remanded in the custody of NAB for 12 days, which completed on Monday.

The NAB has alleged that under the HUASP, the federal government with the assistance of USAID paid Rs2.5 billion compensation to internally displaced persons, whose houses were damaged in the military operation against miscreants but the suspects embezzled millions of rupees from the money.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2015

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