LAHORE: An accountability court on Thursday ordered seizure of the property of former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif’s son-in-law Ali Imran. Ali Imran is accused of taking Rs 130million in bribe from the chief financial officer of the Punjab Power Development Company Limited. He didn’t appear before the court despite summons and has reportedly escaped abroad. Earlier, the court had declared Imran absconder in the Punjab companies scandal and ordered to bring him back through the Interpol. Punjab government had formed 56 companies under the guise of good governance and registered them under Article-42 of the Companies Ordinance, 1984. Ignoring the local companies operating in Pakistan, the Punjab government awarded dozens of contracts to Turkish conglomerates against hefty paybacks. Before formation of these companies, 113,970 employees were working in different departments across Punjab and the figure augmented to 157,500 following the arrival of Turkish corporations. Rules were either disregarded or revoked while contracts were given on the basis of sheer nepotism, thus inflicting hefty losses on the provincial exchequer. Published in Daily Times, September 12th 2018.