Daily Times

LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has initiated an investigation against Chief Minister Usman Buzdar’s most trusted lieutenant in the Punjab bureaucracy — his Principal Secretary Tahir Khursheed — and summoned him on July 8 in an income beyond means matter.

The national graft buster has asked the secretary to appear before it at 11 AM in personal capacity. He will likely be quizzed about graft charges against him.

They said the bureau is investigating a complaint against him for allegedly accumulating more assets than his sources of income justify. He is also accused of awarding contracts worth hundreds of millions of rupees to blue-eyed persons.

The sources said the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has sought details of properties of principal secretary Tahir Khursheed from different departments.

“Details of investment in shares/companies by you and your family members, bank accounts held by you and your family members, copies of assets declarations pro formas submitted by you to the department and copies of income tax returns and wealth statements submitted to the [Federal Bureau of Revenue] should be provided to the bureau,” NAB directed Mr Khursheed.

The corruption watchdog has written letters to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and the excise and revenue departments, among others, to submit the necessary details, the sources said.

Reportedly, CM Buzdar had requested Prime Minister Imran Khan to let him appoint Khursheed, and the wish was granted. Khursheed had developed good relations with Buzdar during his posting as the commissioner of Dera Ghazi Khan — the home district of the CM — during Shehbaz Sharif’s rule in Punjab.