Abb Takk News
Abbtakk Pakistan MOST POPULAR News Ticker Pakistan TRENDING

Probe into Previous Rulers Corruption Being Done Rapidly: Akbar

ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar on Monday warned that the corruption investigations have been accelerated but the rapid verdicts would be taken by the courts.

Addressing press conference Shahzad Akbar said that the money more than the means of income of Sharif family would be confiscated and after the auction, the amount acquired from their assets will be deposited in national exchequer.

He urged PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif not to back away from his “promise” of filing of a case against Akbar over a news story published in UK based paper, which accused the former chief minister of embezzling money from foreign funds.

“You must [sue] me and sue me in a London [court] […] And in that court, I will [produce evidence] of every TT (telegraphic transfer) made by you; how kickbacks were sent from here; how money was transferred through hundi and hawala,” Akbar said in a press conference in Islamabad.

Akbar’s press conference came a day after a UK based paper published a story alleging that the former Punjab chief minister had embezzled money from funds provided by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) to aid victims of 2005 earthquake and floods in later years.

The PML-N had refuted the story yesterday and alleged that it was published on the behest of Prime Minister Imran Khan and Akbar. Sharif had also announced that he would sue the British newspaper as well as Akbar and the prime minister.

In today’s press conference, Akbar said that the story covered only a “small part” of the corruption committed by the former Punjab chief minister. He denied that he had exercised influence in the publishing of the story.

He showed the copy of a pay order of Rs20m sent in September 2002 to private company Messers Ali and Co. which is allegedly owned by Sharif’s son-in-law, Ali Imran. The money, according to the pay order, was transferred from the earthquake reconstruction fund, Akbar said.

He added that former Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority director Naveed Ikram, who had struck a plea bargain with the National Accountability Bureau, had admitted to paying the amount as a bribe.

Akbar showed copies of more pay orders and demand drafts that indicated the transfer of money from the earthquake reconstruction fund’s account to Imran’s company.

The premier’s aide said that the assets beyond known means case against Shehbaz Sharif’s family had started after the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) detected “suspicious transactions” from the bank accounts of the accused.

Akbar said that FMU’s data showed that foreign remittances amounting to more than $26 million were transferred to the accounts of Sharif family members more than 200 times.