Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Tuesday clarified that the bureau had not given any ‘clean chit’ to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) chief minister (CM) Mehmood Khan in a case regarding misappropriation of land leased out in Malam Jabba for ski resorts.

“The National Accountability Bureau has not given any kind of ‘clean chit’ to KP Chief Minister Mehmood Khan in Malam Jabba land case,” said a NAB spokesman. Furthermore, NAB claimed that the statement CM Khan recorded with a combined investigation team (CIT) was ‘unsatisfactory.’ The spokesman added that CM Khan could be summoned any time.

It is pertinent to mention that Khan appeared before the accountability bureau on Monday in Peshawar. Speaking to the media afterwards, CM Khan shared that NAB had given him a ‘clean chit’ in the case which pertained to land leasing.

Earlier in January, reports surfaced that the KP government had leased 275 acres of land belonging to the provincial forest department in Malam Jabba, Swat. The provincial government was to lease a mere 17-acre patch: five acres for construction of a hotel and 12 acres for a chairlift project, for 15 years. Instead, it allegedly gave 275-acre land to a private company on lease for 33 years, violating the rules and regulations. The land was reportedly leased despite objections by the KP Ehtesab Commission and the then chief minister’s inspection team. NAB launched an inquiry into the matter on instruction of its chairman Justice (r) Javed Iqbal.

Published in Daily Times, December 19^th2018.