PESHAWAR: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has recovered Rs200 million from the prime accused in the Rs40 billion Kohistan financial scam.

Sources said that a NAB team raided the house of the main accused, Qaiser Iqbal, a clerk in the communication and works department in Abbottabad, and recovered Rs100 million on the pointation of his wife, who was also in custody.

They added that another Rs100 million was recovered from another place.

Sources said that NAB had so far recovered more than Rs2 billion in the case, the highest cash recovery in its history.

Iqbal and his wife were arrested earlier this month and were produced before the court on Oct 18.

The NAB officials informed the court that the female suspect, in active connivance with her husband and his other benamidars, managed huge cash withdrawals from the bank accounts and through crime proceeds purchased valuable assets in her name knowing that such assets were grossly disproportionate to the known sources of her husband’s income.

They said that the couple, throughout the proceedings of inquiry and investigation, hid facts, remained non-cooperative, provided misleading statements and concealed critical details of the assets held to clear the liability of more than Rs14 billion determined until now.

The NAB officials insisted that on credible information, they had started an inquiry, which revealed that officials of the communication and works department in Upper Kohistan, in connivance with officials of the district accounts office and local NBP branch, had misappropriated funds from different development projects through bogus withdrawals from the treasury in the name of several contractors, who had not carried out any civil work.

They said several people were involved in the illegal cash withdrawal and misappropriation of around Rs40 billion from the contractors’ security deposit head of a bank account.

The officials said the accused abused their respective positions to initiate the process of fraudulent withdrawal from government treasury by creating falsified documentations, which were used to siphon off funds from the bank account.

They said the accused included officials of the district accounts office and communication and works department, staff members of commercial banks and scores of private contractors.

The accountability courts have so far confirmed several NAB orders to freeze dozens of moveable and immovable assets, including luxurious residences, commercial plazas and plots, expensive vehicles and cash, including foreign currency allegedly owned by several suspects.

Twenty-two suspects have so far been detained in connection with the case.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2025