Questioning with Shehbaz almost complete: NAB

Says both housing scam and Saaf Pani case part of one large case involving 56 companies

LAHORE: The top accountability watchdog has said it has ‘almost’ concluded its process of interrogating the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif in connection with a housing project scam.

“NAB [National Accountability Bureau] has almost reached the stage of completion of interrogating Shehbaz Sharif in Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Scheme scam,” said NAB Lahore Director General Saleem Shahzad on Thursday while talking to a private news channel.

He said arrest of Shehbaz, who is also opposition leader in the National Assembly, was necessary as it helped NAB in clearing ‘many things’ up. The PML-N president was arrested on October 6 when he appeared before NAB investigators in connection with Punjab Saaf Pani Company Case.

Shehzad said it was claimed by the PML-N that Shehbaz was summoned in connection with one case but was arrested in another.



“It is a political statement. Both ‘Saaf Pani’ and ‘Ashiana’ are part of the case related to alleged corruption in 56 companies. This case was forwarded to NAB by the Supreme Court and cases related to all the 56 companies actually form one single case,” he added.

He said NAB also launched an inquiry against Shehbaz for allegedly having more assets than his known sources of income after his arrest.

When NAB started grilling the PML-N leader and inquired about details of his assets, he said his financial matters were looked after by his son Salman Shehbaz.

“When we summoned Salman, he provided sketchy information to NAB and left the country. We also summoned Hamza Shebaz but he secured a pre-arrest bail and skipped NAB appearance.”

“NAB has now summoned him on Friday (today) in connection with the inquiry,” he added.


Interim reference against NTS officers

Meanwhile, NAB filed an interim reference against eight former officers including the CEO of the National Testing Service (NTS) that takes tests for recruitment in public and private organisations. These officials are accused of inflicting loss of Rs165m to the national exchequer by hiring phony consultants.

The reference, filed by NAB Rawalpindi in the accountability Court No 1 of Islamabad, consists of two volumes. It pleads that the eight officers hired fake consultants and paid them Rs165m. the reference includes written evidences as well as list of 29 evidences.

According to press release issued by the NAB spokesperson, the regional heads of the NTS were also involved in the alleged corruption. The purpose of the accused was to withdraw heavy sums from the NTS for their personal use.

The accused include the NTS former additional director Tahir Maqbool Khakwani, former company secretary Waqar Sami, former additional director operations Faizul Akbar, regional heads Kamil Ahmed and Muhammad Javed, the NTS deputy director Yaqoob Jan and former regional head Imran Khan.