Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry on Monday sent names of officers facing probe to the Supreme Court regarding the JIT to probe Panamagate.

The officials are Hasnain Ahmad and Luqman Aslam. According to media reports, departmental inquiry is continuing after the court had taken notice of illegal appointments and promotions in NAB. Ahmad and Aslam are being probed. They are accused of illegally appointing dozens of people in NAB.

A five-member bench of the SC ordered to form a joint investigation team (JIT) to probe offshore companies owned by the Sharifs.

The NAB chairman has sent the name of corrupt officers to SC rather than honest officials. He has not bothered to either refute or verify media report. PTI has already filed a reference against Chaudhry in the SC which will be taken up for hearing on May 16. The court has been requested to remove Chaudhry from his office and order inquiry against him.

Separately, the PTI has raised questions on using the Foreign Ministry by the government for defending Nawaz Sharif and his family.

PTI leader Andleeb Abbas has sent a letter to the personal secretary of the PM seeking reply within 21 days in respect of the questions raised by her on alleged use of the ministry for defending the Sharifs.

The letter read that why the directives in writing were issued to Pakistani embassies to defend the Sharifs after announcement of the Panama case verdict.

Defending national stature and ensuring national security is domain of foreign ministry and its subordinate departments. Foreign ministry has spent Rs 8220 million under what head to purchase 35 high security vehicles. Why 1070 million rupees were paid to CDA for construction of Kazakhstan embassy in Islamabad and why permission was not obtained from parliament before releasing this amount.