ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Tuesday opened four new corruption cases against officers of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)-led Sindh government.

Despite repeated criticism by the Supreme Court and political parties for entering into plea bargain deals with bureaucrats, NAB struck a plea deal again.

The decisions were taken at a meeting of the executive board of NAB, chaired by chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry.

The PPP has repeatedly claimed in the recent past that the government is using NAB as a tool for arm twisting of political opponents by implicating them in baseless cases, such as corruption references against former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and ex-federal minister Dr Asim Hussain.

According to the information shared with the media, NAB authorised an inquiry against Manzoor Qadir, Director General of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA), Karachi, and others.

In this case, the suspects are accued of having made 1200 illegal appointments in the SBCA, causing a loss of Rs1.48 billion to the exchequer.

Another inquiry was authorised against Fauzia Shah Jilani and Aftab Hussain Shah, assistant commissioners at the Sindh ministry of labour welfare, for Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) referred by the State Bank of Pakistan under Section 31-D of the National Accountability Ordinance.

In a case against Asghar Waseer, a supervisor of the Sindh revenue department, and others, NAB re-authorised an inquiry against ex-MPA Nasrullah Baloch, and others, for misuse of authority through forgery and tampering with the land record and accumulating assets beyond known sources of income.

Another inquiry was authorised against Manzoor Qadir, Director General of the SBCA, Karachi, and others for illegally approving a commercial building site plan on non-commercial roads, causing a loss of Rs343.5 million to the exchequer.

In a separate case, NAB approved a plea bargain request of Ahsan Ullah Chattha, head of a Lahore based private firm — United Engineers and Contractors — and Zaheer Alam Sheikh of Rs30m and Rs2.5m, respectively.

The meeting approved filing of two corruption references. The first reference to be approved was against Riaz Qadeer Butt, chief of Haq Bahu Sugar Mills, and others, for intentionally failing to supply the requisite quantity of sugar to the Trading Corporation of Pakistan and Utility Stores Corporation of Pakistan and misappropriating the advance payment.

The second corruption reference will be filed against Shehnaz Ikram, director of a hosiery factory, Faisalabad, and others, for committing a fraud in connivance with bank officials by negotiating with forged documents, causing a loss of Rs195.2m to the exchequer.

The NAB board also authorised two investigations. The first one is against officers/officials of Pakistan State Oil, and others. In this case, they are accused of corrupt practices in procurement, shipping and distribution of low quality petroleum products.

The second investigation is authorised against Muhammad Tahir Ismail, proprietor of Tahir Traders, Rahim Yar Khan, for public defraud by establishing an illegal brokerage house, causing a loss of Rs315.2m.

An inquiry was authorised against officers/officials of Karakorum International University, Gilgit-Baltistan, for misuse of authority and illegal appointments. It caused a loss of Rs41m.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2017