KARACHI, July 2: The National Accountability Bureau, Sindh, on Monday arrested four officers of the National Bank of Pakistan and a senior auditor of Shikarpur District Account Office for alleged embezzlement of Rs220 million in the bills of General Provident Funds.

According to the NAB office, the arrested officers include a former manager of NBP Shikarpur branch, Ghulam Rabbani; NBP Compliance Officer, Zulfiqar Ali Shaikh; NBP Garhi Yasin branch officer, Zahid Hussain Bhutto; NBP Haathi Der branch head cashier, Ashfaq Ahmed Shaikh; and Senior Auditor of Shikarpur District Account Office, Noor Mohammad Ajan.

It was reported that the accused had embezzled more than Rs220 million of GP Fund of the government employees in 2002-03.

The NAB officials said that the accused had submitted bogus documents in the name of dead and retired employees more than once showing in record that a final payment had been made. The accused were produced in an accountability court the same day.

Judge Syed Aley Maqbool Rizvi remanded them in police custody for two weeks. It was disclosed that two accused Abdul Rahim Shaikh and Ejaz Ahmed Memon had already been arrested for their involvement in the alleged embezzlement.