PESHAWAR: An accountability court here on Saturday sent a couple, including prime accused Qaiser Iqbal, to the jail in a high-profile case involving the alleged embezzlement of over Rs37 billion funds in the Upper Kohistan district accounts office.

The two accused, including Qaiser Iqbal, who is a head clerk of communication and works department, and his wife, were produced before judge Amjid Zia Siddiqui after completion of their 14-day physical custody with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The judge sent them to prison on judicial remand for 14 days.

A few days ago, the NAB claimed that on pointation of the female accused, it had recovered Rs200 million from paint buckets in her house.

The couple was arrested on Oct 17 by the NAB investigation team.

Meanwhile, contractor Saran Zeb, who was arrested a day ago, was produced before the court and was remanded in NAB custody for 10 days.

Senior NAB prosecutor Habibullah Baig, along with the investigating officer, produced the suspect before the court and said according to initial investigation, a transaction of around Rs38.5 had taken place through different cheques in his bank account.

They sought physical custody of the suspect to interrogate him in the case.

Moreover, another junior clerk of the C&W department, Abdul Basit, was further remanded into the NAB custody for four days after the completion of his 10-day physical remand.

The NAB officials said that Abdul Basit was the frontman of the prime accused, Qaiser Iqbal. They said that through that suspect, Qaiser Iqbal had made transactions of around Rs500 million in different accounts.

The officials said that the suspect had made certain disclosures during custody, so the bureau needed his further physical remand.

Until now, around 27 accused have been arrested in the case.

The NAB officials claimed that Qaiser Iqbal, along with another accused, was involved in the illegal withdrawal and misappropriation of over Rs37 billion from the

contractors security deposit head of a bank account, G-10113.

They added that on credible information, the NAB KP had started an inquiry and that a preliminary probe revealed that officials of the communication and works department, Upper Kohistan, in connivance with officials of the district accounts office and NBP branch had misappropriated funds from different projects through bogus withdrawals from the national treasury in the name of several contractors, who didn’t execute any civil work.

The officials insisted that suspect Qaiser Iqbal had worked as a head clerk in the Upper Kohistan C&W department since Aug 30, 2013, and had “masterminded the preparation and submission of fabricated schedules and cheques drawn on government treasury.”

They added that the accused had abused his position to initiate the process of fraudulent withdrawal from treasury by creating falsified documentations, which were used to siphon funds from head of account G-10113.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2025