Saturday, January 14, 2012

Two former officials held by NAB


6
ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Friday arrested former secretary Establishment Division Ismael Qureshi and former additional director general Ahmad Riaz Sheikh, informed sources told FTNews.
Mr Qureshi was secretary when Adnan A. Khwaja, a matriculate, was appointed chairman Oil and Gad Development Company reportedly on the verbal orders of the prime minister.
Mr Sheikh was detained for being a beneficiary of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) that has been declared null and void by the Supreme Court.
The SC bench had recently directed NAB to probe the appointment of a matriculate as OGDCL chief and re-open the cases closed under the now defunct NRO.
The sources said that warrants had been issued against several other accused and more arrests were expected in the next couple of days.
The warrants were issued by the NAB offices in Rawalpindi and Lahore against those who had benefited from the NRO and some others on the court’s direction.
According to a source, Mr Khwaja and some others voluntarily appeared before the NAB authorities.
A five-member bench of the Supreme Court during the hearing of the NRO judgment implementation case last week had expressed annoyance over the statement of a NAB official that Mr Khwaja’s appointment did not fall within the purview of NAB as its role was to act against misuse of official authority.