Daily Times

Fawad Hassan Fawad, the former principal secretary to the prime minister, has challenged in the Lahore High Court (LHC) his arrest by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) it was reported on Wednesday.

Fawad, a senior bureaucrat, is one of the accused in the multimillion rupee Ashiana Housing scam. He also faces charges of misusing his authority to amass assets beyond his income. The corruption watchdog had arrested him on July 15.

Under the stewardship of Justice Tariq Abbasi, a two-member bench of the LHC heard Fawad’s petition against his arrest, which pleads that the court declare his arrest “illegal” due to an alleged “failure to fulfill legal requirements” for his arrest by NAB. “NAB arrested Fawad in the Punjab Land Development Company corruption case,” the petition notes.

“The arrest made in the case of assets beyond means was against the law and a violation of Section 24 of the NAB Ordinance,” it argues.

The petitioner has subsequently asked the court to issue orders for Fawad’s release.

The LHC bench, after hearing the petition, has issued notices to NAB and other parties. However, it has rejected a request to form a medical board for Fawad’s medical examination and directed his counsel to file a separate petition for that.

Published in Daily Times, August 16^th 2018.