Daily Times

QUETTA: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Balochistan has taken former nazim of Quetta, Mir Maqbool Lehri into custody in corruption case after his application for bail before arrest was rejected by the court, here on Thursday.

The NAB team took away Maqbool Lehri to Accountability Court and the NAB prosecutor pleaded for granting judicial remand of the accused. Accepting the NAB request, the court granted judicial remand and the accused, Lehri was shifted to prison.

A spokesman for the NAB Balochistan said here that the NAB personnel arrested Maqbool Lehri from the court premises after his application for bail before arrest was rejected. “A case of misuse of powers and illegal allotment of official lands was registered against Lehri in 2007 and after the investigation into the case, a NAB reference was filed against him in 20014,” the spokesman said.

He said that Maqbool Lehri, then as nazim of Quetta Metropolitan Corporation misused his official powers and was found involved in illegal allotment of official lands. “NAB has already completed its investigation into the case and it wanted to take judicial remand of the ex-nazim,” he said.

He further said that the accused has been sent to prison on judicial remand. “According to NAB investigation, the accused caused damages to government exchequer in millions of rupees,” the NAB spokesman said.