Ashiana housing scam: Accountability court extends Shehbaz Sharif’s remand to 10 days

F.P. Report

LAHORE: An accountability court in Lahore has extended the physical remand of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif in the Ashiana Housing Scheme scam for further 10 days on Monday.

According to details, Judge Najamul Hassan heard the case after the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) presented the opposition leader in the National Assembly in the court amid tight security.

As the hearing underway, the NAB prosecutor asked the court to extend the remand of Shehbaz for 15 days.

Shehbaz Sharif himself presented arguments against the petition. He said that he was framed in the fake cases, besides accusing the NAB of blackmailing him.

Former chief minister Punjab also complained about not providing medical checkup facility to him by the NAB, adding that he was a patient of blood cancer and needs a regular examination of the blood.

Shehbaz also denied all allegations about an illegal awarding of the contract to a blue-eyed company, adding that NAB had failed to prove the corruption against him.

Announcing the verdict over NAB’s plea, the court extended the remand till November 7.

The remand was set to expire on October 30 but the NAB decided to push back the date owing to a public holiday in connection with annual Urs of Hazrat Data Ganj Bakhsh.

A heavy contingent was deployed around the court in order to maintain security during the hearing of the high profile case. Roads leading to the court were also closed by installing containers.

A number of PML-N leaders and workers also gathered to welcome their leader but they were unable to reach the court due to the blockades. They also raised slogans against the security officials on not allowing them to enter the court.

Sharif was arrested on October 5 after appearing before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in Saaf Paani Company scheme. NAB said Shehbaz failed to satisfy the investigation team regarding a tender awarded to a private consultancy firm and was therefore arrested.

The NAB said it needed more time to interrogate the former CM as part of its investigation into the Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Scheme and would, therefore, request the court to extend the physical remand of the PML-N president.

Moreover, a session of the National Assembly (NA) is scheduled to be held at 4 in the evening on Monday, and Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif, under production order, will also attend the session.

On Saturday, the NAB has approved an inquiry against Shehbaz Sharif and his two sons for possessing assets beyond income, summoning Hamza Shahbaz and Salman Shahbaz on November 2 to answer the questions framed by the investigators.

During the investigation in the Aashiana Housing Scheme case, Shehbaz made the statement that his son Salman was the guardian of his financial matters.

Earlier, an accountability court in Lahore had extended Shehbaz‘s physical remand to NAB for 14 days after his previous 10-day remand ended on October 16.

The anti-corruption watchdog said that the contract for the housing scheme was won by a construction company titled Chaudhry Latif and Sons but Sharif cancelled it and later on awarded the contract to Lahore Casa Developers – a proxy group of Paragon City (Pvt) Limited, which is said to be owned by former Railways minister Saad Rafique.

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