PESHAWAR, July 15: An accountability court here on Monday indicted 11 persons, including officials of the Communication and Works Department, on charges of misappropriating funds in the World Bank-funded primary education project (PEP) of Dir.

All the accused pleaded not guilty to the offence and decided to stand trial. The court, presided over by Attaullah Khan, fixed July 26 for next hearing.

The accused are charged with misappropriating Rs633.09 million in the project at the Upper and Lower Dir districts. The accused are: five executive engineers of C&W namely Abdul Hafeez Savul, Mohammad Humayun, Zahir Shah, Sher Shah and Mohammad Ijaz; two project managers Misbah Anthonio and Syed Kiramat; an assistant director of PEP, Aurangzaib Khan; an SDO Muhammad Israr and two others, Abdul Haq and Abdul Salam.

The National Accountability Bureau had claimed that during the execution of the $117 million World Bank funded project the accused were involved in financial malpractices. The credit facility was to be utilized for the purpose of: construction of new primary schools; upgradation of primary schools; conversion of mosque schools to primary schools; provision of additional classrooms; and, recommendation of primary schools.

One of the accused in the case, Amresh Khan, a XEN, was earlier released after his plea bargain was accepted by the chairman of NAB.