PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday asked the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to submit a reply in a petition seeking an inquiry by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) into alleged corruption in the procurement of 3.5 metric tonnes of wheat for the province.
A two-member bench comprising Justice Naeem Anwar and Justice Farah Jamshed heard the case. Advocate Saleem Shah Hoti appeared on behalf of the petitioner former federal minister Khwaja Muhammad Khan Hoti.
He informed the court that billions of rupees had been embezzled in the procurement of wheat. The provincial government had approved the purchase of 3.5 metric tonnes of wheat this year, for which 21 centres were established across the province.
The procurement process, he pleaded, was conducted under the supervision of food department monitoring committees.
The provincial government, the lawyer maintained, had set the price of 40 kilograms of wheat at Rs3,900 and imposed a 500-tonne limit per farmer. However, large-scale irregularities and corruption complaints surfaced in the procurement process.
The petitioner’s counsel argued that these allegations should be investigated by NAB instead of the provincial Anti-Corruption Committee.
The petition further stated that the chief minister had formed a three-member Accountability Committee, which had already accused provincial Minister Shakeel Ahmed in another case. The committee has now summoned the Provincial Minister for Food, Zahoor Shah Toru.
The petitioner urged the court to declare the Anti-Corruption Committee illegal and prevent it from investigating the wheat scandal until a final decision is reached.
Meanwhile, the provincial government has also submitted a supplementary application requesting the removal of the KP CM from the list of respondents in the case.
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