NAB official travels to UAE to bring former OGRA chairman back

UAE grants one NAB official visa to travel to Abu Dhabi and extradite Tauqir Sadiq.

LAHORE: A day after the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) team set up to escort the prime accused in the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) graft case was left waiting for their permits to travel to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), one NAB official finally boarded a flight to the Gulf country.

On Wednesday, the UAE government issued visa to one member of the two member NAB team assigned to travel to Abu Dhabi, the Express Tribune learnt.

The two-member team comprised NAB Deputy Director and Investigation Officer Waqas Ahmed Khan and Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) Rana Shahid. However, UAE authorities issued visa only to NAB official Waqas Ahmed Khan.

The team was due to travel on July 2 to escort the former OGRA chairman Tauqir Sadiq back to the country to face the courts.

According to NAB sources, Sadiq is being extradited from the UAE, unlike previous reports which suggested that he would be deported. Pakistan though does not have a formal extradition treaty with the UAE. But Sadiq is being extradited under a special government arrangement, signed by investigation officer Waqas Ahmed Khan and Pakistan counsulor Arshad Jan Pathan in Abu Dhabi.

The UAE Interpol had already refused to hand over custody of Tauqir Sadiq to NAB prosecutor Shumail Aziz, who had reached Abu Dhabi in advance on June 30, 2013, to complete legal formalities.