KP NAB on Wednesday arrested Ex-Director General FATA Disaster Management Authority (FDMA) Arshad Khan, who was presently posted as Additional Secretary Home & Tribal Affairs Deptt Govt of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Irfanullah Ex-Assistant Director FDMA.
They are allegedly involved in embezzlement of funds in the Housing Uniform Assistance Subsidy Project (HUASP) for Bajaur Agency and looted more than Rs 300 Million fraudulently.
As per details, under the Housing Uniform Assistance Subsidy Project the Government of Pakistan with the assistance of USAID paid compensation to internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) whose houses had been damaged furring a Military Operation. Under the project Rs 400,000 were paid to each individual whose houses had been completely damaged, while Rs 160,000 were paid to owners of the partially damaged houses. Total payment of almost Rs 2.5 Billion was made under the project to almost 10,000 affectees of Bajur Agency.
During the course of the inquiry, it was revealed that the accused Arshad Khan while he was the FDMA DG, in connivance with ex-assistant director Irfan Ullah and others managed to embezzle millions of rupees in compensations payment meant for the affectees of terrorism after an operation in Bajour Agency. The accused Irfan Ullah in connivance with other officials prepared hundreds of counterfeit survey forms of fake/ineligible affectees and afterwards included the same in the payment lists in order to embezzle public money. While Arshad Khan illegally granted approval to all those ineligible/fake affectees of Bajour Agency and deviously misled PDMA/PaRRSA for illegal payments, thus breached the trust which the Government has imposed upon him. In nutshell, accused Arshad Khan, Irfan Ullah and others accused remained hand in glove with each other to fulfil their nefarious design of embezzlements of funds for illegal monetary gain.
It merits mentioning here that Arshad Khan is in judicial custody after his arrest by KP NAB for embezzling Rs 60 Million in the name of ghost affectees of Mohmand Agency, a major portion of which has already been recovered.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa NAB actively perusing the case and more alarming facts and names of some high profile persons are expected to come forth in the scam. The accused persons will be produced before an Accountability Court Peshawar for physical remand.
