KARACHI: An accountability court of Karachi has granted a 6- day physical remand of both top arrested officials of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) in a ghost pension graft scam.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) karachi office had raided NBP head office in Karachi on October 15, 2021 and arrested senior vice president (SVP) , Munawar Hussain Gopang and vice president, Shahani Abdul Latif, for their alleged involvement in the fraud of fake pensions amounting to Rs 2 billion.
The charge -sheet presented by Inquiry officer (IO), Irfan Ali, while seeking physical remand of the accused, suggested that Munawar Hussain Gopang, who was working with NAB investigated the case and through Shahani Abdul Latif, his bank colleague, struck a deal with the accused who had committed the fraud of Rs 2 billion at Hyderabad branch of NBP through ghost pensions and received the graft.
Later , NAB had conducted inquiry into fake pensions case of NBP Hyderabad branch and arrested its main accused and bank employee, Zainul Abidin. During the course of investigation, the arrested accused Zainul Abidin, divulged that he had struck a deal with Munawar Hussain Gopang through Shahani Abdul Latif for declaring him innocent in ghost pension fraud. He also divulged that the total amount that he paid to Munawar Hussain Gopang as bribe money through Shahani Abdul Latif, was Rs 75 million.
The inquiry report revealed that the accused, Munawar Hussain Gopang, received deal money at Shahani Abdul Latif’a residence in his presence.
The IO pleaded before the court for 14- day physical remand for investigation from the accused, Munawar Hussain Gopang and Shahani Abdul Latif. The counsel for the accused opposed the IO request for 14- day physical remand of his clients.
The court after hearing the argumenta of both sides granted physical remand of the accused for 6 day. The accused will be again presented before the court on October 21, 2021.