PESHAWAR: The National Accountability Bureau, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on Monday filed a reference against 10 people, including former provincial minister Nawabzada Mehmood Zeb, accusing them of inflicting a loss of Rs355.2 million to the exchequer while awarding the lucrative mining contract to a woman schoolteacher.

The accused are former mines and mineral development minister and PPP leader Nawabzada Mehmood Zeb, former technical education and minerals secretary Shah Wali Khan, former additional secretary of the department and current Bannu commissioner Asamtullah Khan Gandapur, section officer Farhad Ali, deputy director of the department Khan Badshah, geologist at the directorate of mines and minerals Nauroze Khan, senior inspector of mines and mines commissioner Ziarat Khan, then director licensing of minerals department Shakirullah, assistant director (litigation) of mineral department Pervaiz Khan, and the alleged front man of Mehmood Zeb, Ehtishamul Mulk.

The accused were arrested by the NAB on July 9.

Later, the Peshawar High Court dismissed the bail petitions of five of the accused including Mehmood Zeb, Ehteshamul Mulk, Khan Badshah, Shakirullah and Nauroze. It however granted bail to the five accused.

In the reference, the NAB alleged that Mehmood Zeb in connivance with the other suspects had misused his authority in illegal allotment of 500 acres of proven deposit of phosphate to a woman schoolteacher, Rukhsana Javed, who illegally excavated phosphate in collaboration with the front man of the minister and jointly caused loss to the national exchequer

It alleged that Sarhad Development Authority (SDA) held an area of 1200 acres of phosphate under Mining Lease from 1985 to 2005. The area, it is added, was surrendered back in 2005 and was required to be put through open auction as per Mining Concession Rules (MCR) 2005.

The NAB said in an illegal manner, the then minister presided over a meeting on Jan 1, 2009, wherein the award of the prospective mining licence to the woman was decided.

It added that Mehmood Zeb signed minutes of the said meeting two days after the woman made a partnership with his front man on Jan 19, 2009.

The NAB alleged that the prospective licence of the area was given to her in return of the petty amount of Rs15,000, which was the licence fee, though the site had proven deposits of phosphate.

The NAB claimed that an adjacent site, which had also proven deposits of phosphate was leased out mining for Rs118 million, which showed how loss was inflicted to the exchequer.

Also in the day, the NAB, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, filed a reference against five people including a district councilor of Chitral and a former divisional forest officer, accusing them of inflicting a loss of Rs70.5 million to the exchequer by embezzling forest funds of the royalty-holders in Chitral.

The accused in the reference are district councilor Prince Khalid Pervez, who is brother of MNA Prince Iftikharuddin; former Chitral DFO Gulzarur Rehman, who is now assistant professor at the Peshawar Forest College; and three others including Noor Shahideen, Rehmat Karim, Malik Shaye.

They all were arrested on Aug 20.

The NAB said on the complaint of royalty holders, it had initiated an inquiry which revealed that under the policy of the forest department, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the royalty should be distributed to royalty holders of the locality equally through the joint forest management committee.

It alleged that the suspect, Noor Shahideen, had made a fake JFMC and fraudulently made himself its chairman through the connivance of other accused and that the suspects later allegedly embezzled money through the complex banking transactions.

Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2015