LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Lahore on Wednesday arrested Chief Executive Officer of the Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) and his alleged accomplice on the charges of corruption.

According to NAB, PIDC CEO Khalid Mehmood Chadda and his accomplice Muhammad Zubair caused a loss of Rs11.2million to the exchequer through illegal sale and procurement of land measuring 800 Kanals at exorbitant rates in Sargodha.

“Mr Chadda, being the chairman of both committees - monitoring, audit and finance - purchased the land in question in violation of Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules from co-accused Muhammad Zubair. Chadda also signed the bids of Zubair by ignoring the lowest bidder, thus causing a loss of Rs11.2m,” a spokesman said.

He said Mr Chadda, by misusing his authority and granting undue favour to the vendor, purchased the land which was also under charge of mortgage against loans of different banks.

While vendor Mr Zubair was also not the sole owner of the land for which he got approved the bid in connivance with Mr Chadda. He said the NAB had acquired a 10-day physical remand of the suspects forfurther investigations.

Meanwhile, the NAB Lahore arrested Rana Mohsin, a Lesco defaulter. Mohsin is accused of defaulting on Rs136m. He will be presented before an accountability court on Thursday for obtaining his physical remand.

Published in Dawn, April 13th, 2017