PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday disposed of the case pertaining to corruption in the Malam Jabba contract as NAB submitted it found no corruption.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Justice Rooh ul Amin presided over the case regarding inquiries of multiple corruption scandals against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government.

National Accountability Bureau (NAB) submitted its report prepared by its executive board in the high court. The report said no illegal activity in contract awarding of Malam Jabba came to the fore during the investigation. Hence, the anti-graft watchdog said the inquiry has been closed.

Notably, the Malam Jabba scandal surfaced on January 7, 2018 and the NAB chairman had declared it a classic example of corruption and power abuse.

On January 9, 2018, he ordered a probe into the scandal and an investigation against KP former chief minister Pervez Khattak and several officials began.

The officials faced charges of alleged irregularities in the leasing of 275 acres of state forestland in Malam Jabba, Swat to Samsons Group of Companies in 2014.

In November 2021, a local accountability court had allowed the anti-graft watchdog to formally close its investigation after the bureau maintained it did not trace any corruption.

Now, the high court has also disposed of the case after NAB reiterated the same in its report compiled by the executive board.

Further, in the case pertaining to the Billion Tree Tsunami scandal, NAB’s lawyer said they had already submitted the reference.

Regarding the BRT scandal, the lawyer informed the high court that the KP government secured a stay order from the Supreme Court.

The counsel said the NAB has already approached the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) regarding the Bank of Khyber (BoK). Justice Rooh ul Amin Khan said they have split the case against the BoK and would hear it later.

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