NAB probing tsunami tree project
PESHAWAR: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is investigating the PTI government’s Billion Tree Tsunami afforestation programme.
The tsunami tree project launched during the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI)’s previous tenure in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had cost the province Rs17 billion.
During his visit to the NAB KP office, chairman Javed Iqbal scoffed at critics for not pursuing PTI government-linked cases, saying the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) case was sub judice.
He said that the probe into Billion Tree Tsunami project was in process while Malam Jabba resort probe had been concluded in the light of the Peshawar High Court’s directives.
Supreme Court bench, headed by the then chief justice Saqib Nisar, had in September 2018 stopped NAB from probing alleged corruption in the BRT project. The apex court in February last year had also stopped a Federal Investigation Agency probe into the project.
KP Minister for Labor and Human Rights Shaukat Yousafzai, while explaining the provincial government’s rationale for stopping the probes through stay order said that the project was built through a loan from the Asian Development Bank.
He said that if the provincial government had not taken stay from the apex court, the investigations would definitely have led to the stopping of work on the project.
Besides, Mr Yousafzai said, it would also have led to an increase the amount of the loan.