Former KPK IG arrested by NAB for misusing authority

  • November 22, 2013, 2:19 pm
  • National News
  • 107 Views

ISLAMABAD, Nov 20 (INP): Former Inspector General (IG) of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) Malik Naveed Khan was taken into custody by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Wednesday.

He was accused of misusing his authority as Frontier Constabulary (FC) Commandant and conducting illegal recruitment of about 500 people.

“Naveed made millions in an arms purchase deal worth Rs6 billion with a Chinese firm a few years back,” an investigator had alleged.

The case, which was earlier tried in 2011, was revisited as part of NAB chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry’s new initiative to review pending cases.

An accountability court had ordered Naveed’s release on October 10, 2011 after he was detained in a reference filed by NAB.

NAB had filed the reference, on November 24, 2010, in the accountability court seeking trial of the former IGP for misuse of his authority. NAB sent a brief of the case to its head office regarding the case in which the officials of FC, including its former commandant, were blamed for recruiting candidates illegally.

Malik Naveed had admitted that he “relaxed recruitment rules and procedure”.

“When 50 to 60 percent of FC soldiers deserted us in Buner and Swat after the Taliban offensive and when 22 FC soldiers were killed in a day and police stations were set on fire by militants, we were faced with a very difficult and challenging situation,” he had said while defending his decision to recruit soldiers in violation of rules. “I was left with no option,” he had added.

“Those who have lodged a reference against me in the NAB court had lost their nerve when the government lost its writ because of the deteriorating law and order situation in Swat. These people used to tell me to relax recruitment rules and procedure,” he had alleged, referring to the provincial government at that time.