Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) will initiate a probe into the corruption allegations against the Billion Tree Tsunami initiative, an official notification said on Monday.

According to the notification issued after a meeting of the watchdog, the NAB also decided to inquire the alleged illegal appointment of the Higher Education Commission chairman. The complaint against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Establishment Division’s officials was also cleared for a probe.

According to the notification, the NAB will observe the progress on ongoing inquiries against illegal private cooperative housing societies. The NAB chairman directed the officials that measures should be taken to recover looted money of the public. He also ordered that all the inquiries and investigations should be completed on time.

In February, a resolution was submitted in the KP Assembly secretariat against the Billion Tree Tsunami project, which has been under scrutiny due to its magnitude and contradicting data.

The allegations of corruption erupted after it emerged that the official documents of the KP government failed to correspond with the claims made by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan regarding the project. Imran had claimed that the Billion Tree Tsunami project was completed in the province and 1.12 billion trees were planted during the forestry drive.

It is pertinent to mention that in August, an investigation within the government departments revealed that 145 officers of the KP forest division were found involved in corruption. Legal action was taken against those officers, whereas 44 officials were forcefully retired due to misappropriation of funds and other reasons regarding the project.

The project aims to turn around deforestation and increase the province’s forested area by at least two per cent. About 40pc of the country’s remaining forests are in KP province.

Published in Daily Times, March 13^th 2018.