Daily Times

LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Friday arrested former Punjab chief minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif in the Ashiana Housing Scheme case.

Shehbaz, who is also leader of the opposition in National Assembly, was arrested as he appeared before the anti-corruption watchdog to record his statement in the Saaf Pani case.

“The National Accountability Bureau Lahore has arrested former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif in the Ashiana case. NAB will produce him in an accountability court on Saturday,” a press release issued by the NAB said.

Following the arrest, a large contingent of Rangers was deployed outside the NAB’s Lahore office.

The PML-N president will be presented before Admin Judge Syed Najmul Hassan today. NAB will request the court for his 14-day physical remand, Prosecutor Waris Ali Janjua told a private TV channel. Lawyer Amjad Pervez will represent Shehbaz before the court.

According to a letter issued by NAB Lahore, the National Assembly speaker was informed about Shehbaz Sharif’s arrest before NAB took the action. The letter issued by Additional Director (Staff) Muhammad Mazhar Javed stated that NAB Lahore Director General Shehzad Saleem had a telephonic conversation with NA Speaker Asad Qaiser about the matter. The letter states that NAB issued arrest warrants for Shehbaz and executed those the same day.

According to the letter, an investigation was already under process by the anti-graft body against the management and officials of the Punjab Land Development Company, Lahore Development Authority and Lahore Casa Developers under the provisions of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999.

According to a NAB notice sent to the former Punjab chief minister on January 16 this year, Shehbaz is accused of ordering the cancellation of award of contract of Ashiana-i-Iqbal to successful bidder Chaudhry Latif and Sons, leading to award of the contract to Lahore Casa Developers, a proxy group of Paragon City Private Limited, which resulted in the loss of approximately Rs 193 million. He is also accused of directing the Punjab Land Development Company to assign the Ashiana-i-Iqbal project to the Lahore Development Authority (LDA), resulting in the award of contract to the Lahore Casa Developers, causing a loss of Rs 715 million and the ultimate failure of the project. NAB has also accused Shehbaz of directing the PLDC to award the consultancy services of the Ashiana-i-Iqbal project to Engineering Consultancy Services Punjab (ECSP) for Rs 192 million while the actual cost was supposed to be around Rs 35 million as quoted by the NESPAK.

Former Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique and his brother Khawaja Salman Rafique are also involved in the case and have been summoned by the NAB on October 16.

According to reports, Shehbaz was arrested after Fawad Hassan Fawad, the then implementation secretary, told NAB that he carried out all actions on the orders of Shehbaz Sharif, who was the chief minister of the province at that time.

While commenting on the development, Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry maintained that the federal government acted in a non-partisan way and that Shehbaz’s arrest was purely the NAB’s doing.

“These cases were created by NAB in their own government. Under the laws, NAB first conducts an inquiry, then investigation and then the reference is filed. So now the NAB has converted these inquiries into investigation as they have seen that there is a lot of potential in those. Massive corruption worth Rs 56 billion has taken place in these cases,” he told reporters.

“The government is completely non-partisan in this but we want to know that the people who looted Pakistan are being held accountable. Those involved in other big cases should also be arrested,” he said. “And whatever cooperation the NAB needs from the government, whether it is in the form of the FIA or getting people extradited through red warrants or assistance in prosecution, the government is ready to help. But also keep in mind that NAB is a free institution and is not in the government’s control,” he added.

PML-N terms arrest as ‘political revenge‘ —A5

Published in Daily Times, October 6^th 2018.