Three-day remand of BS-20 officer granted in case of Rs9.4mn bribes

LAHORE: A judicial magistrate on Thursday granted a three-day physical remand of a BS-20 officer of Punjab Communication and Works Department to the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) for investigation into charges of receiving Rs9.4 million bribes.

ACE arrested chief engineer Waseem Tariq, an alleged front man of former chief minister Usman Buzdar’s principal secretary Tahir Khurshid, and accused him of receiving Rs9.4m as bribe from a contractor.

The investigating officer produced the arrest officer before the magistrate and sought his 14-day physical remand for investigation.

The magistrate, however, granted physical remand of the suspect for three days and directed the IO to produce the suspect again on June 18.

Read more: Reference filed against Balochistan health sector employee for Rs200 corruption

On June 13, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Balochistan had filed a reference against a government employee belonging to health sector for accumulating illegal assets worth over Rs 200 million.

Khalid Bhatti, Medical Technician of Muhtarman Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Hospital Quetta, could not justify assets including two commercial plazas, several luxuries cars, houses and acres of agricultural land in Quetta, Lahore and Sahiwal city of Panjab made in the names of his wife and the business partner.

During a probe into the case of illegal asset, initiated on a complaint, NAB Balochistan had come across the fact that accused Medical Technicians allegedly made illegal assets while in service.

About two commercial plazas, several houses had unearthed in Lahore and Sahiwal city of Punjab and a house in Quetta besides five expensive cars, the accused could not come up with satisfactory answers with regards to their ownership and source of income.

The investigation into the corruption case had further revealed that the accused had made the assets on the name of his wife and benamidar and business partner Faqir Hussain.

After gathering the substantial proof, NAB Balochistan had filed a reference with the accountability court Quetta.

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