ISLAMABAD, June 29: The Ministry of Interior on Friday placed the names of as many as 23 provincial bureaucrats said to be close to the Sharif family on the Exit Control List (ECL).
The names of the provincial officials have been put on the no-fly list on the request of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
Those who face travel restrictions are Quaid-i-Azam Solar Pawer Plant CEO Najam Shah, Primary and Secondary Health Secretary Ali Jan Khan, Paragon City Finance Director Farhan Ali and Manager Shahzad Waheed, Power Development Company CEO Syed Farrukh Shah, Gujranwala Waste Management Company CEO Wasim Ajmal, former chairman Faisalabad Industrial Company Lateef and Aslam Khan.
Others included Lahore Waste MCompany anagement officials Jameel Ahmed, Rana Muhammad Arif, former CEO Waseem Ajmal, and managing director Khalid Majeed.
Earlier this week, an accountability court granted 14-day physical remand of former top officials of the Punjab’s Saaf Pani Company – Engineer Qamarul Islam Raja and Waseem Ajmal Chaudhry – in a case pertaining to the alleged financial irregularities in the company.
Mr. Raja – former chairman of the company – was taken into custody by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Monday hours after his nomination as candidate of the PML-N from NA-59 and PP-10 Rawalpindi constituencies.
He has been fielded against disgruntled party leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on NA-59.
The Bureau in a statement said Raja, who was one of the members of the company’s procurement committee, allegedly awarded contracts of 84 water treatment plants at excessive rates to favourites.
It said: “In a deceitful manner, the accused (Raja) enhanced the estimates of amounts of plants in bidding documents and later awarded the contract to the KSP Pumps Company as in-charge procurement committee.”
Mr. Chaudhry – former CEO of the Company, had allegedly changed the bidding documents of projects after completion of the bidding process in violation of Punjab Procurement Rules 2014.
He is also accused of illegally approving the installation of eight filtration plants at Tehsil Dunyapur. It merits mention here that the Supreme Court had ordered a probe into the Saaf Pani Company after Punjab Chief Secretary Zahid Saeed revealed that a single drop of water couldn’t be made available to the people of the province despite the government having spent Rs4 billion on the Saaf Pani Project.
The chief secretary told the judges that so far Rs4 billion had been spent on Punjab Saaf Pani Company (PSPC), set up with an aim to ensure supply of potable water to the people, but not a single drop of water could be supplied. The chief justice of Pakistan reiterated that everyone will be held to account and that he will ensure every single penny of public money is returned to the national exchequer.-Agencies
