QUETTA: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Wednesday arrested the former provincial chairman and secretary of Red Crescent after the Balochistan High Court (BHC) rejected their application for bail before arrest in a corruption case.

BHC division bench comprising Justice Kamaran Khan Mulakhail and Justice Rozi Khan Baraich heard the application filed by former chairman Shabbir Ahmed and secretary Jehanzeb Raisani of Red Crescent, Balochistan. Jaffer Raza appeared as NAB prosecutor in the case.

According to the investigation carried out by a team of the NAB Balochistan, the accused embezzled millions of rupees. They withdrew cheques from three different accounts of Red Crescent in the name of ghost employees for fuel and procurement of office items, while they had no justification to withdraw a heavy amount.

Shabbir Ahmed had no expertise to run the charity organisation, while Jehanzeb Raisani was a former ghost employee of the education department where he had been facing corruption charges.

Both the accused had been taken to the NAB Balochistan office. NAB would interrogate them after taking their remand from court. Further probe was under way.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2021