PESHAWAR: A distant relative of exchief minister Ameer Haider Hoti and his former adviser were arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Tuesday in a famous weapons procurement scam for which former provincial police officer Malik Naveed Khan is already in custody for receiving kickbacks.

The two suspects, including Niaz Ali Shah, stated to be an adviser of Mr Hoti when he was the chief minister, and Raza Ali Khan, the brother-in-law of Mr Hoti`s brother Mir Ghazan, were produced before an accountability court and were remanded into the custody of NAB, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for 14 days.

Judge Wilayat Ali Gandapur ordered the NAB officials to produce the two suspects again on Jan 21.Mr Niaz was arrested here from near his resident Tuesday morning whereas Mr Raza was taken into custody by the NAB officials on Monday from Islamabad.

The prime suspect in the case, Malik Naveed was arrested on Nov 20 and has already been in physical custody of NAB which would complete on Jan 20.

The officials of NAB including the investigation officer Enayat Khan and special prosecutor Lajbar Khan told the court that Mr Raza was accused of receiving Rs198 million from Arshad Majeed, a private contractor to whom most of the contracts of procurement were awarded, out of which he kept Rs3 million for himself whereas rest of the 195 million was handed over to Mr Ghazan.

They alleged that Mr Niaz was adviser to the then chief minister on law and order and he was accused of receiving Rs20 million from Arshad Majeed.

The official said he had directed Arshad to provide Rs1 million in US dollars and rest of the money in Pakistani currency.

Mr Niaz pointed out to the court that he was never adviser the chief minister andthere was no notification available to that effect.

He said he had good terms with Mr Hoti and was falsely implicated in the instant case.

Umar Farooq Adam, lawyer for Mr Raza, said the only crime of his client was that he was brother-in-law of Mr Ghazan.

He said Mr Raza was a student aged around 25, who had already joined investigation and visited the NAB officials but they had been forcing him to confess that he had received money from Arshad Majeed and handed it over to Mr Ghazan.

The atmosphere turned tense in the courtroom when Mr Umar said the officials of NAB were immoral, corrupt and incompetent.

The NAB officials reacted to his allegations and said his statement was irrelevant and got nothing to do with the case.

The officials requested the court to award them custody of the two suspects as their interrogation was vital for reaching to other culprits in the case.

When the judge inquired which other suspects would be arrested the officials saidcurrently, they could not disclose their names as there was possibility that they would escape.

In the instant case, Arshad Majeed and budget officer of police Javed Khan were initially arrested on Feb 21, 2013, but the former was released on bail by the high court after he turned approver and agreed to voluntarily return Rs102 million.

Later on May 25, 2013, Arshad Majeed recorded his statement under section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure wherein he alleged that he made payments to the tune of over Rs1 billion to several people, including Malik Naveed, as kickbacks for getting lucrative contracts and cover-up of the issue.

In his statement, Arshad Majeed also alleged that he had made payments to Mr Ghazan through Raza and Mr Niaz.

It is worth mentioning that at the request of police, the provincial government had approved purchase and upgrading of weapons/equipment for its use to counter terrorism in the province.

Over Rs7 billion was released by the government for the said procurements.