Pre-arrest bail pleas of Arshad Vohra, nine others in CETP case rejected.

HYDERABAD -- The Anti-CorrAupAtion Establishment (ACE) authoArities arrested three officials of the Sindh Industrial Trading Estate (SITE) on Monday after Sindh High Court's Hyderabad circuit bench rejected pre-arrest bail applications of nine accused, including former deputy mayor of Karachi Dr Arshad Abdullah Vohra, the contractor of Rs996.952 million Combined Effluent TreatAment Plant (CETP), Kotri.

The CETP remained dysfunctional for a long time after it was put in operation in 2010 on the directives of the high court. The three arrested SITE officials are Nabeel Ahmed Shaikh, Moiz Qazi and Abdullah Jatoi. Five co-accused - Waqar Abid, MohamAmad Essa, Ghulam Shabbir KhoAkhar, Murad Ali Jatoi and Anum Siddique - managed to escape from court whereas Arshad Vohra was absent.

According to the ACE report, Nabeel Ahmed Shaikh was the estate engineer of Kotri SITE. He failed to check quality of work executed at the plant. Moiz Qazi was then finance director and made payment to the contractor. Abdullah Jatoi was sub-engineer and carried out substandard work in collusion with [different] contractors. Waqar Abid was partner in M/s Ara Joint Venture which was owned by Dr Arshad Vohra. Mohammad Essa was acting project in-charge of the contractor. He left the works incomplete causing losses to government. Ghulam Shabbir Khokhar was the chief engineer and made different payments to [different] contractors while failing to check quality of work and completion of project. Murad Ali Jatoi was also responsible for the substandard works carried out in collusion with [different] contractors. Anum Siddique, former finance director, made payments to the contractor.

The ACE report maintained that Dr Vohra's Ara Joint Venture was awarded the contract bypassing the rules and regulations of the Sindh Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (SPPRA). It alleged that the company also received illegal benefits.

Five accused escape from court, three arrested

According to ACE additional director (legal) Rizwan Tirmizi, 14 accused were booked in a case registered against them vide crime No. 18/2019. Four of them - Abdul Rasheed Solangi, the then SITE managing director, Syed Manzoor Mehdi, Rehan and Agha Abdul Muneem - have absconded. AnoAther accused, Abdul Waheed ShaAikh, the then chief engineer, has died. Rehan is partner of Ara Joint Venture whereas Syed Manzoor Mehdi was the chief architect of the project. Agha Abdul Muneem was deputy project director and had the...

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