PESHAWAR: A local accountability court on Tuesday remanded a senior official of the planning and development department in the custody of the National Accountability Bureau, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, for 10 days in a corruption case.

Assistant chief (BPS-18) Tehsil Zaman was arrested by the NAB on the charge of inflicting a loss of around Rs110 million to the exchequer during the procurement of sanitation vehicles for the local government department at exorbitant rate.

Judge of the accountability court Mohammad Ibrahim Khan asked the NAB to produce the suspect on Sept 18.

According to the NAB, it had received a complaint that the officials of local government department had purchased sanitation vehicles at inflate d rate and thus, causing a huge loss to the exchequer.

A subsequent inquiry revealed that the officials allegedly rejected the lowest bid on flimsy grounds in complete violation of the law and awarded contract to a company, Meraj Limited, though it was the highest bidder.

The NAB claimed Tehsil Zaman was the representative of the planning and development department in the IntraDepartmental Purchase Committee formed for the procurement. It said the corruption suspect was also the member of the sub-committee constituted for the technical evaluation of the biding process.

`He worked in connivance with other accused person and signed technical evaluation without getting any report from the sub-committee members.

`The potential lower bidders were knocked out on petty grounds in technical evaluation approved by Tehsil Zaman. In technical evaluation approved by him, the potential lower bidders were l
Also in the day, the court remanded a junior clerk of revenue department in Mardan, Javed Iqbal, in the NAB custody for 10 days in a case of the possession of illegal assets.

The NAB has claimed the suspect has been possessing assets disproportionate to known sources of his income.

According to it, it held an inquiry to know about the moveable and immovable properties owned, controlled and possessed by the suspect either in his own name or in the name of his dependents.

The inquiry revealed during service in the Mardan revenue department, the suspect had got one kanal and five-marla bungalow and a nine-marla precious house in Bagh-i-Aram area of Mardan. Also, he had also made huge unexplained transactions in bank accounts.