ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Wednesday arrested Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani. After arrest of former ports and shipping minister Kamran Michael, Customs Today had reported a few days ago on 16 February that the Bureau would arrest senior politicians soon.
According to details, NAB has accused him of illegal appointments, misuse of power, misappropriation of funds and owning assets beyond his known means of income. The NAB Karachi team travelled to Islamabad to arrest him. He has been taken to the NAB Rawalpindi office where they will obtain his transit remand to bring him back to Karachi for the investigation.
NAB had been investigating him in these cases for around five years. The cases against him include corruption in the construction of the new Sindh Assembly building, illegal appointments during his tenure as local government minister and corruption in the parliamentary lodges project.
After Sharjeel Inam Memon and Dr Asim Hussain, this is the first major leader to be arrested from the PPP. In comparison, the PML-N has seen the recent arrests of many leaders, including both Sharif brothers and Khawaja Saad Rafique.
Earlier, NAB authorised 13 inquiries against various personalities, including former MNA Ghulam Rabbani Khar and his daughter Hina Rabbani Khar, authorized 3 investigations against former PM Ch. Shujaat Hussain and former Punjab CM Ch. Pervaiz Elahi and started interrogation against former ports and shipping minister Kamran Michael over allegations of corruption and misuse of authority.
Chairman Justice (r) Javed Iqbal chaired Board’s Executive Board Meeting (EBM) and approved these inquiries against senior politicians and government officials. He said that taking mega corruption cases to its logical conclusion is the foremost priority of the bureau, adding that the bureau is strictly following the principle of “accountability for all”.
Following orders of the NAB Chairman, the NAB Karachi arrested and started interrogating PML-N leader Kamran Michael, the former federal minister for ports and shipping, over allegations of misuse of authority and pocketing over Rs1 billion in bribes.
Director General NAB Karachi Brig (R) Farooq Nasar Awan played a crucial role in digging out cases of Sindh leaders and businessmen for corruption and misuse of authority. NAB Karachi under dynamic leadership of Brig (R) Farooq Nasar Awan is striving hard to take culprits to task without discrimination and taking any kind of political pressure.
It is pertinent to mention here that the NAB has also started taking action against big corporates involved in corrupt practices along with senior politicians and business tycoons. Taking action on a complaint, the NAB Karachi has authorized inquiry against 65 officials of QICT and Maersk in a mega scam case of Rs 610 billion.
