KARACHI: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Friday arrested Syed Ali Raza, former president of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), on charges of corruption after the Sindh High Court turned down his bail request.
Raza has been shifted to an undisclosed location and will be presented before NAB court on Saturday.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had filed a reference against the former NBP chief and other officials for allegedly misusing their authority by granting and revising financing facilities in the NBP Bangladesh branch that caused a loss of $185 million to the national exchequer.
Implementing the SHC’s orders, NAB arrested Raza and the co-accused, including Imran Butt and General Manager Bangladesh Waseem Khan.
However, the court upheld the pre-arrest bails of two other co-accused Qamar Hussain and Kausar Malik.
During a hearing of the bail plea initiated by the former bank chief, NAB apprised the court about the losses inflicted on the national treasury by the accused.
The NAB prosecutor argued that the 2009 audit report of the bank had revealed irregularities and the State Bank of Pakistan had also expressed its reservations on the financial affairs of the bank.
He further informed that at the time of the scam, Raza along with being the president of the NBP was also the chairman of its board of directors, the head of its audit committee and the human resource department chief.
He said that 16 individuals had been nominated in the corruption reference in all, adding that Raza and former senior executive vice president Zubair Ahmed had been granted bail earlier.
According to NAB officials, the Bangladeshi citizens involved in the corruption scandal include Saleemullah, Pradeep and Qazi Nizam.