Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah summoned by NAB in graft probe – Pakistan

After being questioned in the case of false accounts earlier this year, Sindh's Chief Minister, Murad Ali Shah, has been summoned again by the National Responsibility Office (NAB) on Tuesday to question him about his alleged role in offering subsidies to sugar mills through inappropriate channels, sources and officials said Monday.

A NAB official confirmed that the anti-graft agency has called the provincial chief executive in Karachi on Tuesday morning, but did not disclose more details.

Shah had appeared before the joint investigation team (JIT) formed by the Supreme Court in Islamabad that was investigating the case of money laundering and false bank accounts involving transactions worth Rs. The top leadership of the PPP is said to be among the beneficiaries of the fake accounts.

A source familiar with JIT procedures said Dawn that when the issue of the provision of subsidies to four or five sugar mills was discussed, there was a divergence of opinions among team members. Some JIT members argued that this was beyond their mandate, since JIT was supposed to investigate only false bank accounts.

Subsequently it was agreed that NAB would conduct a separate probe in the sugar mills. Therefore, the anti-graft agency established a combined research team (CIT) led by NAB Director General Rawalpindi, Irfan Mangi.

It is the NAB CIT that summoned the Prime Minister of Sindh tomorrow, the source said.

Regarding the case, the source revealed that when Shah was Sindh's finance minister, subsidies were granted to certain sugar mills, including Thatta Sugar Mills, Dadu Sugar Mills "closed", etc.

One of the stated purposes of such subsidies was to "revive sick industrial units", but that money was allegedly not used for the intended purposes.

Another official said the Sindh prime minister was also facing an investigation by NAB in the case of the Nooriabad power project in which three people were already arrested in May. Among them, the president of Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company, Khursheed Jamali, the CEO M / S Technomen Kinetic Pvt Ltd Syed Asif Mahmood and the director Nooriabad Power Company, Syed Arif Ali.

According to NAB, they were arrested for extending illegal favors to M / S Technomen Kinetic Pvt Ltd and others on Sindh Nooriabad Power Company and Sindh Transmission and Dispatch Company (STDC) projects, and causing a loss of $ 16 million to the national treasury.

The Nooriabad energy project was originally conceived by the Sindh government in 2012, but could not materialize due to "red upholstery and delays in regulatory approvals."

The project was finally launched in August 2014 under a public-private partnership at a cost of Rs13bn in which the Sindh government owned 49 percent of the shares and a 51 percent private company. A 132kV double circuit transmission line of 95 km long from Nooriabad to Karachi was placed at a cost of Rs1.95bn.

SECMC president Jamali, who was then director Sindh Nooriabad Power Company Ltd, said in 2017 that the plant would use gas to produce 100MW of energy at less than Rs10 per unit, compared to Rs15 per unit charged by the Development Authority of Water and Energy

Earlier this year, Sindh's cabinet was informed that the power plant had made a profit of Rs6.62bn.