Five more cases against Shehbaz sent to commission: Saeed
Minister says irregularities committed in award of contracts
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar with Minister for Communications and Postal Services Murad Saeed in a press conference in Islamabad on Monday. PHOTO: PID
ISLAMABAD:
Minister for Communications and Postal Services Murad Saeed has said five more cases regarding irregularities committed in award of contracts by former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif have been sent to a high-powered commission probing loans obtained during the last 10 years and how they were used.
Addressing a news conference along with Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar here on Monday, the minister said, "The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has already taken up those corruption cases, and the same are now being sent to the commission also."
He said Shehbaz had issued a notification in 2008 for the appointment of Mustafa Kamal, brother of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Ahsan Iqbal as the Chief Minister's Horticulture Task Force chairman, whom five contracts were awarded in sheer violation of rules and procedure.
The minister said the contracts, including Lahore Metro, Islamabad-Rawalpindi Metro, University of Punjab Gujrat Campus and projects in Liberty Market Lahore, were awarded to Kamal without floating any tender or holding the bidding process.
Ironically, he said, a special payment mechanism had also been devised to ensure smooth transfer of money to the frontman in the name of different projects.
Saeed said he had already sent two cases of the Pakistan Peoples Party and the PML-N leaders to the commission for their alleged embezzlement in National Highway Authority (NHA) projects.
He said billions of rupees were misappropriated through a contractor in the NHA projects approved for Larkana and Multan during the PPP government. The contract was awarded to Ashraf Baloch, who was also found involved in the fake bank account cases. Whereas, he said, another case had been forwarded against Iqbal along with documentary evidences, which showed that the PML-N leader had caused a loss of Rs50 billion to the national exchequer in the award of Multan-Sukkur road project.
Iqbal, he said, signed a memorandum of understanding for the project with a construction company in 2013, which was scheduled to be executed in 2015. Iqbal was now claiming that he had signed the MoU on the directives of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, he added.
The minister said both the PPP and the PML-N had signed a 'charter of dacoity' to protect each other's corruption.
Till the recent past, leaders of both the parties had been threatening to expose each other's corruption on floor of parliament, but they soon opted to keep mum in the name of so-called democracy, he added.
To a question, Saeed said the NHA had made recoveries of around Rs7,880 million during the last eight months from various contractors, most of whom were "nowadays making a hue and cry in parliament".
He vowed that the government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan, would continue going after the plunderers of national wealth, and recover each and every looted penny from them.
To another question, the minister said the government would recover toll tax along with fine from Maryam Nawaz as her convoy did not pay toll tax on the motorway while going to Mandi Bahauddin the other day.
Shahzad Akbar said all the opposition parties had a single "ideology" -- how to escape from the ongoing accountability process.
"They all have a common theme of loot, plunder, money-laundering and corruption."
He said in the past, the PPP and the PML-N had been framing corruption cases against each other and sending their opponents behind bars.
Currently, he said, the whole opposition was in an "attacking mood" as the public wanted to get rid of corrupt elements and the flawed system. With the increased pace of accountability process, the opposition will agitate, he added
He said the people voted for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to hold accountability of the corrupt and it would not breach that trust.
On a recent video aired by Maryam Nawaz, he said the Islamabad High Court should itself investigate the matter as its legality was under question.
Minister for Communications and Postal Services Murad Saeed has said five more cases regarding irregularities committed in award of contracts by former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif have been sent to a high-powered commission probing loans obtained during the last 10 years and how they were used.
Addressing a news conference along with Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar here on Monday, the minister said, "The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has already taken up those corruption cases, and the same are now being sent to the commission also."
He said Shehbaz had issued a notification in 2008 for the appointment of Mustafa Kamal, brother of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Ahsan Iqbal as the Chief Minister's Horticulture Task Force chairman, whom five contracts were awarded in sheer violation of rules and procedure.
The minister said the contracts, including Lahore Metro, Islamabad-Rawalpindi Metro, University of Punjab Gujrat Campus and projects in Liberty Market Lahore, were awarded to Kamal without floating any tender or holding the bidding process.
Ironically, he said, a special payment mechanism had also been devised to ensure smooth transfer of money to the frontman in the name of different projects.
Saeed said he had already sent two cases of the Pakistan Peoples Party and the PML-N leaders to the commission for their alleged embezzlement in National Highway Authority (NHA) projects.
He said billions of rupees were misappropriated through a contractor in the NHA projects approved for Larkana and Multan during the PPP government. The contract was awarded to Ashraf Baloch, who was also found involved in the fake bank account cases. Whereas, he said, another case had been forwarded against Iqbal along with documentary evidences, which showed that the PML-N leader had caused a loss of Rs50 billion to the national exchequer in the award of Multan-Sukkur road project.
Iqbal, he said, signed a memorandum of understanding for the project with a construction company in 2013, which was scheduled to be executed in 2015. Iqbal was now claiming that he had signed the MoU on the directives of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, he added.
The minister said both the PPP and the PML-N had signed a 'charter of dacoity' to protect each other's corruption.
Till the recent past, leaders of both the parties had been threatening to expose each other's corruption on floor of parliament, but they soon opted to keep mum in the name of so-called democracy, he added.
To a question, Saeed said the NHA had made recoveries of around Rs7,880 million during the last eight months from various contractors, most of whom were "nowadays making a hue and cry in parliament".
He vowed that the government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan, would continue going after the plunderers of national wealth, and recover each and every looted penny from them.
To another question, the minister said the government would recover toll tax along with fine from Maryam Nawaz as her convoy did not pay toll tax on the motorway while going to Mandi Bahauddin the other day.
Shahzad Akbar said all the opposition parties had a single "ideology" -- how to escape from the ongoing accountability process.
"They all have a common theme of loot, plunder, money-laundering and corruption."
He said in the past, the PPP and the PML-N had been framing corruption cases against each other and sending their opponents behind bars.
Currently, he said, the whole opposition was in an "attacking mood" as the public wanted to get rid of corrupt elements and the flawed system. With the increased pace of accountability process, the opposition will agitate, he added
He said the people voted for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to hold accountability of the corrupt and it would not breach that trust.
On a recent video aired by Maryam Nawaz, he said the Islamabad High Court should itself investigate the matter as its legality was under question.