Quetta Accountability Court on Tuesday remanded former Balochistan Development Authority (BDA) chairman and former Tethyan Copper Company (TCC) security and government affairs officer into NAB custody for their involvement in Reko Diq scam.
The former BDA chairman and the former TCC officer were arrested from Islamabad four days ago.
After taking transit remand from Islamabad court, the accused were produced before Quetta Accountability Court judge Munawar Shahwani wherein the judge approved NAB plea for 15-day remand.
It may be mentioned that the National Accountability Bureau-Balochistan, after the approval of NAB Chairman Justice Javed Iqbal, had filed a reference against 26 accused, including the former officers of Balochistan government and international companies, in the Reko Diq case.
The accused, in connivance with each other, had caused billions of rupees loss to the national exchequer.
In 1993, the Chaghi Hills Exploration Joint Venture Agreement was signed between the BDA and an Australian company Broken Hills Proprietary, in which the later was illegally benefited by corrupt officials, particularly those belonging to the BDA.
“The Balochistan Mining Concession Rules were not only illegally amended to further strengthen the terms of this agreement, which was in conflict with the national interest, but also by repeatedly entering into illegal sub-agreements and introducing a new company namely TCC, more financial benefits were obtained,” NAB observed.
In addition, there were serious irregularities in the allotment of land and other matters by the officials of the revenue department, while the accused also confessed of taking financial benefits in this regard.
Examination of records and statements of witnesses revealed eye-opening facts that TCC operatives were found to be involved in bribing government employees and illegally gaining interests.
An investigation team, headed by NAB Operations DG and NAB Balochistan DG, has been working on the most complex case in the history of the bureau and the biggest case in terms of volume of corruption.
