Fawad Hassan Fawad sent on 14-day physical remand

NAB summoned him at least 11 times but he appeared only thrice

LAHORE: An accountability court on Friday sent former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s close aide Fawad Hassan Fawad on physical remand to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for 14 days.

Fawad, who also served as secretary to former prime ministers Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Nawaz Sharif, was regarded as the most powerful bureaucrat during Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)’s previous tenure.

The former secretary had been summoned by the National Accountability Bureau Lahore (NAB) at least 11 times but he appeared only thrice.



He was arrested on Thursday, by NAB authorities when he appeared before its investigation team at Lahore’s Thokar Niaz Beg complex and could not give ‘satisfactory answers’ to the questions posed by the investigators in Ashiana-e-Iqbal and other relevant cases.

The prosecutor had demanded his custody, pleading that NAB had found evidence against him and needed custody of him for further investigations.

However, Fawad's counsel pleaded innocence, saying that his client was wrongly implicated. After hearing the arguments, the court ordered his physical remand.

Describing the grounds of his arrest, a NAB investigator said Fawad had misused his authority while serving as implementation secretary to the former Punjab CM in the Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Project.

Talking to The Express Tribune, he said the accused person issued illegal orders to Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC) Chief Executive Tahir Khursheed to suspend a contract "legally awarded" to  Chaudhry Latif and Sons after eight months of its signing.



An inquiry under the supervision of Finance Secretary Tariq Bajwa was conducted to investigate the nature of the awarding of the contract had declared it legal and in the spirit of Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules.

He said Fawad kept the inquiry report secret from the concerned authorities, adding that Chaudhry Latif and Sons had not only paid Rs70 million as mobilisation advance, but work on the project had also been initiated.

“The government had to pay Rs5.9 million due to this illegal suspension of the contract,” he said.

The illegal steps by the accused had not only caused an inordinate delay in the initiation of the project, the cost of the project also increased by billions of rupees, he added.

He further said that NAB had repeatedly summoned Fawad, but he only appeared three times.

Moreover, the NAB officer said that the accused person while serving as Punjab Health secretary bought six mobile units at an exuberant rate of Rs55 million per unit.

He alleged that Fawad also illegally served in a private bank from September 2005 to July 2006.

Fawad is also alleged to have prepared counterfeit No Objection Certificates (NOC) for shifting nine CNG pumps from one district to another while working for a private energy provider.

These irregularities performed by the accused person had caused loss of billions of rupees to the government exchequer, he added.