MULTAN: An accountability court on Friday granted 13-day physical remand of former chief engineer Sabir Khan Sadozai and five other officials to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in Multan Metro bus scandal.

The NAB had on Thursday arrested executive engineers Amanat Ali and Riaz Hussain, sub-divisional officers Manzoor Ahmed, Rana Wasim and Munim Saeed.

The suspects were presented before accountability judge Abdul Rasheed and the investigation officer requested the court to grant their physical remand for 14 days; however the court awarded 13-day remand with a direction to produce them on Sept 26.

According to the National Accountability Ordinance, the NAB authorities can request the court for a maximum 90-day remand.

Sources said that the NAB authorities also summoned all members of the planning and development department board, including former secretaries Iftikhar Ali Sahoo and Arif Anwar Baloch, the board’s former chairman Irfan Elahi, Punjab Metro Bus Authority Managing Director Sibtain Fazal Haleem, Punjab Mass Transit Authority General Manager Aziz Shah, Additional Finance Secretary Ashiq Hussain Aulakh, Technical Housing Urban Development and Public Health Engineering Additional Secretary Shahid Latif, operations managers of two private banks, former Multan Development Authority (MDA) additional director general Altaf Hussain Sario, MDA acting Director General Rizwan Qadeer and officers of various wings besides the arrested suspects. But the NAB authorities did not arrest any of the high-ranking officers.

The entire district price assessment committee, including former district coordination officers Zahid Saleem Gondal and Nadir Chattha, former excise and taxation officers Javed Zaman Niazi, Fakhar Hasan Fakhar, Sohail Akhtar Buzdar and Fakhar Zaman Qureshi, former assistant commissioners Malik Attaul Haq, Farooq Dogar and Haq Nawaz Chohan and Kashif Dogar as well as other district officials, also appeared before the NAB team.

It was also decided that former chief minister Shahbaz Sharif will be asked to explain his position later.

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2018