NAB summons Shehbaz's son

Salman is called to record statement in assets beyond means case

LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has summoned Salman Shehbaz, son of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz President Shehbaz Sharif, in assets beyond means case on Wednesday (tomorrow).

The NAB has asked Salman to appear before a combined investigations team (CIT) at Thokar Niaz Beg complex to record his statement.

Many prominent PML-N leaders including former federal minister Khawaja Saad Rafique and his brother former Punjab minister Khawaja Salman Rafique in the Paragon Housing Society scam had already been summoned by the accountability watchdog.

On October 5, the NAB had arrested Shehbaz in Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Scheme scam. He appeared before the NAB to record his statement in Punjab Saaf Pani Company case. The accountability court had allowed 10-day remand of the PML-N president.



He had been accused of misusing his authority and acting in connivance with accused Fawad Hassan Fawad, the then secretary (Implementation) to Punjab CM.

Shehbaz was accused of causing millions of rupees loss to the national exchequer by cancelling award of contract from its successful/lowest bidder and also illegally transferred the project to LDA which was headed by his close aide Ahad Khan Cheema.

The NAB had alleged that his act was meant to give unlawful benefit to blue-eyed firm namely Bismillah Engineering Company, which was a proxy firm of Paragon City (Pvt) Limited.

A source seeking anonymity told The Express Tribune that NAB during its investigation had found a money trail of Rs50 million that was paid to Fawad Hassan Fawad to play a role in the cancellation of the award of the contract to the successful bidder.

According to the source the amount was paid by a senior official of the company CONPRO Services (Pvt) Limited. CONPRO Services (Pvt) Limited was the runner-up bidder.



Brother of a retired army general was involved in the payment of the graft for cancellation of the project, the source added.

Later on the project was awarded to Casa Developers.

“NAB was working to ascertain what was paid in return of Rs50 million of graft money to the brother of the retired army general associated with CONPRO Services (pvt) Limited”, the source said.

Earlier, the accountability watchdog had found details of the transfer of around Rs30 million paid to Ahad Cheema to buy 32 kanal of land as graft in return for cancellation of the project from an account of Paragon Housing Society.

The source added that Rs14 billion was the worth of the project when it was started. “However, the magnitude of the scam will blow up as the investigation unfolds”.

He added that thousands of applications were received after the announcement of the project.

The money that the public had paid as fee for the application form has been in the possession of the project, he said.

“Moreover, over 2,000 kanal of land of the Ashiyana remained in the account of project. Few portions of the land, mostly situated at the front side and adjacent to the Paragon Housing Society, were also sold out through manipulation,” he said.

The incurred loss other than Rs14 billion also included payment of over Rs180 million to a firm for feasibility report. However, a Pakistani firm had promised to prepare the report at a cost of around Rs30 million.

Millions of rupees paid to Chaudhry Latif and Sons for the cancellation of the project were also paid from the government exchequer, he added.

The advertisement cost of the project was also paid from the taxpayer money.