The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested three more suspects in the case pertaining to the financial irregularities worth Rs2 billion in the Multan Metro Bus Project (MMBP), media reports said Saturday.
According to the details, those apprehended include an engineer, managing director and patwari. All three have been accused of trespassing their jurisdiction, the reports said.
The NAB had earlier collected the entire record related to the project after some resistance from the Punjab government and initially estimated that the embezzled amount was Rs2 billion.
In September, the anti-graft body had arrested six officials in the same scam, including Project Director Sabir Khan Sadozai, executive engineers Amanat Ali and Riaz Hussain, sub-divisional officers Manzoor Ahmed and Rana Wasim and Munam Saeed have been arrested.
“The physical remand of the accused will be requested from the National Accountability Bureau judge,” the press release had said.
The SDOs were arrested in the Multan Development Authority building and others were summoned to the NAB regional office and were taken into custody.
A survey was conducted to construct 37-kilometre long route in two phases and its estimated cost was Rs35 billion. Later, it was decided that only first phase would be constructed at a cost of Rs28.37 billion but more than Rs32 billion had been spent to complete the project.
The cost of 35 articulated buses and 100 feeder buses, installation of optical fiber, elevators, lights and other components is not included in the total cost of the project but these expenses were made through the Punjab Mass Transit Authority.
Among other irregularities, a company which was hired for the provision of imported glass at metro stations used local glass and a probe was initiated by NAB Multan. It was later hushed up, the reports said.