The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Tuesday night arrested a finance secretary of a non-government organisation, Emercon, for allegedly embezzling Rs 1,150 million from the funds for rehabilitating October 8 earthquake victims. “On the directives of the NAB NWFP director general, the officials conducted a raid at midnight on the house of the accused and arrested Suleman Anwar,” the bureau’s investigation officer, Haider Khan, told Daily Times. The accused is a finance sectary of Emercoan, an Islamabad-based NGO, and has stolen millions of rupees from the funds for the well being of quake affectees. “Anwar was pointed out by his office colleague Marghub Ali, who was arrested by the NAB in the quake funds scam,” the NAB investigation officer said. NAB officials on Wednesday produced the accused in an accountability court and demanded his physical custody. Accountability court judge Arshad Qaiser accepted the NAB investigation officer’s appeal and granted a 15-day physical remand of the accused to the bureau.
The bureau had also arrested Marghub Ali, another representative of Emercon, on corruption charges. The same court on January 6, 2007, gave a 10-day physical remand of Marghub Ali to NAB for embezzling millions of rupees in quake funds. NAB arrested him after receiving complaints from people and quake victims that the NGOÂ’s representatives had embezzled millions of rupees in the earthquake affecteesÂ’ funds. Both the accused belong to the Frontier province.
NAB officials said an investigation was underway and that more arrests were expected during the next few days as the bureau had begun investigations, on the embezzlement of quake funds.