PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa accountability court Tuesday arrested two more accused in the weapons scam case, DawnNews reported.
National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officials confirmed that the two arrested — Niaz Ali Shah and Raza Ali — were acquaintances of former KP chief minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti.
Niaz Ali Shah had worked in the capacity of advisor to the former chief minister and Raza Ali was the brother-in-law of Ghazan Hoti, a brother of Amir Haider Hoti. Both were being presented in the accountability court today.
NAB (KP) had arrested former Inspector General (IG) KP Malik Naveed and supplier Arshad Majeed for their alleged involvement in supplying substandard weapons and equipment to the KP police.
The former IGP was already being grilled in substandard weapons purchase case involving billions of rupees and remains in NAB custody.
Sources in the NAB informed Dawn.com that a number of other arrests were likely to be made during the probe which may include politicians and high-ranking police officers.
The case came in limelight when Naveed was arrested by the NAB on Nov 20 on charges of receiving kickbacks in the multi-billion rupees procurement of weapons, equipment and vehicles for the provincial police department.
The NAB inquiry had earlier revealed that a number of KP police officers and officials were allegedly involved in massive corruption and irregularities in the 2008-09 procurement by violating government rules and thus causing huge loss to the exchequer.
Majeed, the contractor, had turned approver in the case and had told the court about the alleged kickbacks received by various government functionaries in the case.
Moreover, a colonel and three majors of the Pakistan Army were sacked from military service after it emerged that they had accepted kickbacks while inspecting arms purchased by the KP government for the provincial police in 2010.