Court grants a day's transit remand for PML-N's Khawaja Asif

An accountability court in Islamabad granted a day's transit remand of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senior leader Khawaja Asif on Wednesday, for him to be produced before an accountability court in Lahore.

Accountability court judge Muhammad Bashir in a one-page judgment issued maintained that the PML-N leader was arrested on December 29, and that his arrest warrants were issued on December 23.

The judgment maintains that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had requested for a two-day remand. However, a day's transit remand was granted considering the travel distance between Islamabad and Lahore.

A day earlier, on December 29, the PML-N’s acting leader of the opposition in the National Assembly was arrested by officials of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Lahore from the federal capital, from near senior party leader Ahsan Iqbal's residence where he had come to attend a party meeting.

He has been arrested in the assets beyond means and money laundering cases.

The former defence minister was produced before the Islamabad accountability court today wherein his lawyer requested for his release, saying there was "no case".

“Here, the case is of transit remand, so he [Khawaja Asif] be presented in Lahore,” remarked accountability court judge Muhammad Bashir while presiding over the hearing.

Asif's counsel prayed to the judge that "you have the authority to release him".

"[He] will be shifted to Lahore as soon as the order is received," the NAB prosecutor informed the court.

The accountability judge asked the PML-N leader whether he was informed of the reasons of his arrest.

Asif replied that he was provided an unsigned copy of them. To this, the judge remarked that he be provided a signed document of the reasons.

'I stand with Nawaz Sharif'

While responding to media personnel's queries before the proceedings began, Asif said he had been facing such cases for the past two years.

“I have been asked to leave Nawaz Sharif,” he said. “Efforts are being made to break up the party for the last two-and-a-half years and weaken Nawaz Sharif. I stand with Nawaz Sharif’s narrative. ”

The PML-N leader further added that he was presented a charge sheet that his assets had increased, but the NAB had not conducted any investigation as of yet.

The case

On December 29, NAB said that Asif had allegedly committed offences of corruption and corrupt practices as defined under Section (V) of the National Accountability Ordinance of 1999 and Section 3 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA), 2010, as “he accumulated assets disproportionate to his known sources of income and laundered the assets by concealing the origin and nature of assets”.

In a statement, the bureau maintained that Asif became a public office holder in 1991 as a member of Senate, and subsequently remained MNA and federal minister on various occasions. “Before holding public office in 1991, his net worth was Rs5.1 million, while after holding public office he acquired assets worth Rs221 million approximately (traced so far) till 2018, which are disproportionate to his known sources of income.”

The statement said that Asif claimed to have received Rs130 million approximately as salary income from an employment in the UAE with a company named M/S IMECO, however, “he failed to provide any documentary evidence for receipt of said salary which shows that a fake source of income was created by him to justify his alleged ill-gotten assets”.

In addition, the anti-corruption watchdog said that Asif has allegedly been “operating a benami firm Tariq Mir & Co in the name of his low-wage employee Tariq Mir, more than Rs400 million was deposited in cash in the bank account of Tariq Mir and Company without having any plausible source of funds.”