LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau has issued a notice to a BS-19 officer of NAB, seeking explanation for allegedly ‘demanding money and liquor’ from a real estate company in a housing society scam, thus bringing the institution into disrepute.

“It has been reported that the NAB Lahore additional director (BS-19) visited the complainant’s office, NM Estate Lahore (a subsidiary of Ferozepur City Lahore) on Jan 15 and met its marketing general manager Nauman under the influence.

In disjointed conversation, he started shouting and abusing the employees of the said office and demanded liquor continuously,” the NAB notice said.

It further said the NAB officer not only asked for producing Mr Nadeem (owner of NM Estate) and Mr Zaheer (a Grade-IV employee) but also demanded “compensation”.

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“This is a clear and glaring reflection of NAB officer getting involved in an attempt to extort money while misusing authority and blatant misconduct, bringing NAB into disrepute which was tantamount to misconduct on his part.”

NAB said the competent authority had taken serious notice of the incident and asked the officer to explain his position in writing as to why not a disciplinary action under the relevant provisions of NAB Employees Act 2000 might be initiated against him on account of misconduct.

The officer has been asked to submit his reply within seven days of receiving the notice.

Sources told Dawn that the NM Estate had recently entered a plea bargain with NAB in the Ferozepur Housing Society scam and reportedly cleared its liabilities.

“It (housing society) filed a written complaint with the NAB chairman retired Justice Javed Iqbal against the officer for demanding money. The chairman had last week visited the Lahore NAB office to hand over the compensation money to the affectees of this scam,” a source said, adding the chairman ordered an inquiry into the matter.

The chairman had distributed an amount of Rs760m among 3,000 affectees of the scam and those of Model Housing Enclave Project.

Dawn is withholding the name of the officer in question as investigation against him has yet to be completed (by NAB).

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2021