Property return: NAB officer summoned

Petition moved by the wife of a NRO beneficiary demanding the bureau return her property worth Rs6.4 million.

LAHORE:

A two-member bench of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday summoned a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) investigator on a petition moved by the wife of a National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) beneficiary demanding the bureau return her property worth Rs6.4 million.

The petitioner, Naseem Chaudhry, said NAB was not returning property seized over fraud charges against her husband Muniruddin.

NAB legal expert Hanif Tahir told the bench that the FIA had registered a case against Muniruddin, a former officer in the Accountant General’s office, for the alleged embezzlement. The case was later transferred to NAB, but dropped after the promulgation of the NRO.

Tahir said that the case was  reopened after the Supreme Court struck down the NRO. He said Muniruddin’s wife did not appear to have a source of income and the bureau believed that the property might have been bought with dirty money.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 15^th, 2012.