NAB arrests Sharif’s brother-in-law

Suhail Zia Butt was arrested over charges of defaulting on a Rs70 million loan.

LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested on Thursday former National Assembly member Suhail Zia Butt, a brother-in-law of PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, over charges of defaulting on a Rs70 million loan.

Suhail Butt was on way to his office after attending a funeral in the Model Town area when he was picked up by a special team of NAB near Kalma Chowk in Garden Town. He was shifted to the Chamba House.  NAB has accused Butt of misappropriating over Rs70 million in a cooperative companies scam. In 2000, NAB registered cases against him of withdrawing money by swindling cooperative banks. Butt was declared a proclaimed offender in absentia by an accountability court in 2001. He returned to Pakistan in 2008 before the elections after spending more than seven years abroad and no action had been taken against him for almost two years.

Other accused in the case include Chaudhry Tajammul Hussain, the late uncle of PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Chaudhry Nayyar and Chaudhry Abdul Majid.

Zia Butt is a brother-in-law of the Sharif brothers. His son, Umar Suhail Butt, is a sitting MNA from Lahore.

Expressing surprise over Butt’s arrest, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said NAB officials did not take the provincial government into confidence before Suhail’s arrest. He said that he would contact the federal government after collecting facts.

Relatives of the accused told reporters that the case has “no basis and the PPP is trying to politically victimise us”.

Published in The Express Tribune September 2^nd, 2010.