ISLAMABAD: The National Accoun­tability Bureau has decided to start an inquiry against Vice Chancellor of Karachi University Dr Mohammad Qaiser on charges of corruption.

The decision was taken by the bureau’s executive board at a meeting presided over by NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry on Wednesday.

According to NAB’s spokesman, the vice chancellor and others have been accused of misappropriating public funds through illegal payments, appointments and use of provident funds, causing a loss of Rs566 million to the national exchequer.

Karachi University is the one of the oldest and biggest public sector universities of the country established in 1951. Prof Qaiser has been given an extension (till further orders) by Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad after his four-year term as VC expired in March this year.

According to media reports, the Sindh Higher Education Commission’s committee, tasked with appointing VCs, has been unable to function properly and hold regularly meetings because of the arrest of its chairman, Dr Asim Hussain.

A senior NAB official said Dr Qaiser was accused of utilising the university’s funds without approval by the competent authority.

The NAB executive board also authorised investigation against former chairman and managing director of the National Investment Trust Tariq Iqbal Khan and former director Asif Jameel and others. They have been accused of illegally selling Pakistan Engineering Company’s shares without obtaining necessary approval from the government.

The board re-authorised two inquiries — the first against officers of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the managements of private firms Free Balance and ECG.

The CDA officers prequalified Free Balance allegedly on the basis of defective evaluation and awarded work to ECG without obtaining performance guarantee from the contractor and premature payment to the vendor/contractor without completion of module of the project, thus causing a loss of Rs38.99m to the exchequer.

The second inquiry was re-authorised against Azeem Iqbal Siddiqui, former managing director of Sui Southern Gas Company Limited, and others.

They have been accused of purchasing assets of Progas (a private LNG company) in capacity of single bidder at an exorbitant rate of Rs2.25m.

The deal cost the national exchequer Rs800m.

The NAB meeting decided to close an inquiry against Nadir Shah, Managing Director of Liquidator National Construction Company Limited, because of lack of incriminating evidence.

The meeting decided to refer a case against former Punjab minister Chaudhry Zaheeruddin, former town nazim Akhtar Ali and others to the Anti-Corruption Establishment because it did not fall within NAB’s purview.

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2016