LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has closed an inquiry into corruption charges against Pakistan Railways officers in the award of signaling system contract and excessive payments to the contractors.

The bureau wrote to Minister for Railways Azam Swati that based on the findings of the inquiry report, the NAB chairman has approved the closure of the inquiry.

It clarifies that the closure of the inquiry will not affect any other case and will not prevent initiating any new case under the ordinance. Mr Swati had told a press conference on Jan 23 about his meeting with NAB Chairman Javaid Iqbal on the ongoing inquiries about PR signaling/interlocking project.

He also quoted the NAB chairman as promising with him to decide the references against railways within seven days by assigning the task to prosecutor.

“I also asked the NAB chairman to punish those involved in the case, but make some space for the innocent one,” he had said. “So, the chairman pledged to decide the references within a week. I also told the NAB chief that due to this issue (non-completion of the project and delay in fi nalizing/deciding references), the PR has been facing operational losses of $60,000 per day.” The project was approved by Ecnec in 2008 and work was launched in 2011 (from Lodhran to Shahdara section).

The work was done at 21 stations while the system has yet to be placed at many other stations. It delayed after former minister Sheikh Rashid sent the case to NAB for probe into alleged corruption. This diminished offi cers’ interest in the completion of the project.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2021