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NAB Arrests Shehbaz Sharif In Ashiana Company Case

Lahore (October 05, 2018): The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has arrested Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President and National Assembly Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif in connection with the Ashiana Company case, a press release said on Friday.

The NAB in its press release states that the former Punjab chief minister will be presented in an accountability court tomorrow (Saturday).

Shehbaz was arrested after appearing for a routine hearing of Saaf Pani Company scam at the NAB’s Lahore office. Sources told that three files were tabled before him.

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The former chief minister is accused of awarding illegal contracts to his favorite firm.

The PML-N president failed to satisfy the probing team of the bureau during the investigation and was ultimately arrested. He is likely to be presented before the accountability court on Saturday.

The Bureau quizzed Sharif regarding a tender awarded to a private consultancy company for a survey of the Saaf Pani company.

The anti-graft watchdog has claimed that the company did not conduct any kind of survey but nevertheless provided a lucrative sum of Rs 1.5 billion.

Sources said that ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s prinicipal secretary Fawad Hassan Fawad has become approver.

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Shahbaz was detained by NAB officials and his car has been sent away. His private staff who accompanied him as security have also been sent away.

A heavy contingent of Rangers has been posted outside NAB Lahore.

Earlier, he had appeared before NAB on a couple of occasions in the Saaf Pani Company and Rs14 billion Ashiana Housing Scheme scams and recorded his statement. He is accused of violating the Punjab Procurement Regularity Authority (PPRA) rules in the award of contracts in the Saaf Pani Company affairs.

In November 2017, NAB had launched a thorough probe into the affairs of the 56 public-sector companies formed by Shahbaz administration in Punjab for their alleged involvement in corruption.

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Posted by Abbtakk on Friday, October 5, 2018

Earlier on July 5, ex-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s principal secretary Fawad Hassan Fawad was arrested by NAB over several corruption charges including contract of Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Scheme and three other projects.

Fawad, while serving as secretary to the project director of Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC), had played a role in the cancellation of bid a company to favour another company.

The Lahore Development Authority (LDA) former chief Ahad Khan Cheema is already behind bars in connection with the housing project scandal.

Mentioning the grounds for his arrest, NAB maintained that the Punjab Land Development Company through an agreement dated January 20, 2015 assigned the project of Ashiana Iqbal (a low cost housing project of GoP) to LDA. Accused, Ahad Khan Cheema, being Director General LDA, by miuse of authority and with criminal intent in connvance with the other accused persons processed and awarded contracts of Ashiana Iqbal Project of Rs14 billion to Lahore Casa Developers, a joint venture which was ineligible for the contract.

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Posted by Abbtakk on Friday, October 5, 2018

The contract was awarded in violation of PPP Act, 2014.

In June, the NAB had detained Qamarul Islam Raja, a PML-N leader from Rawalpindi, on charges of providing fraudulent documents and awarding tenders of 84 water filtration plant at astronomical prices. The PMLN leader benefitted massively while the national treasury of Pakistan took a huge hit.

The NAB acted swiftly and detained Waseem Ajmal Chaudhry, a former chief executive officer (CEO) of the Saaf Pani Company and the secretary P&D.

It was reported that Chaudhry had approved a payment of Rs24.7 million to the management of Ali and Fatima Developers Private Limited as office rents for the Saaf Pani Company.The case

On March 17, the Punjab government suspended Cheema from service for three months.

According to a notification issued by the Punjab government, Cheema’s suspension will start from the day he was arrested by the NAB and will last for three months.

Cheema, a grade-19 employee, was serving as the chief executive of Quaid-e-Azam Thermal Power Limited when he was arrested.

The sources in Punjab Civil Secretariat said that notification of Cheema’s arrest was issued after approval from the federal government.

Cheema was arrested on February 21 after NAB detected illegalities and corruption worth billions in a deal between Paragon Housing Society and Punjab Land Development Company to construct the Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Society, a low-cost project of the Punjab government.

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