PESHAWAR: The Federal Investigation Agency’s anti-corruption wing has arrested son of Pakistan Muslim League-N’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa president Amir Muqam and four contractors on charges of causing huge losses to the government kitty during construction of Alpuri-Bisham Road in Shangla district.

Officials in the FIA said that Ishtiaq Ahmed, son of PML-N leader and director of his father’s company, and other accused were called by the agency to its office and were later arrested. The other accused, who have been taken into custody, were identified as Mohammad Ashfaq, former project director, Mohammad Ayaz, resident engineer Associated Consulting Engineers (ACE), Mohammad Arshad, resident engineer ACE, and Mohammad Ali, attorney holder at Mohammad Irshad and Company.

The officials said that three other accused identified as Mian Mohammad Asghar, former general manger for Asian Development Bank’s project, and Habibur Rehman, former project director of the said project, and Mohammad Saeed Sandu would also be arrested.

The FIR stated that the ministry of communications had in November 2018 approached the agency with a request to register case against the accused for causing heavy losses to the national exchequer due to non-compliance of National Highway Authority’s code and improper execution of the project.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2019