LAHORE – The National Accountability Bureau has raided the Lahore-residence of Fawad Hasan Fawad, the former principal secretary to the prime minister, seizing important record related to Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Scheme scandal.
Fawad Hasan was arrested on Thursday and was presented before an accountability court the next day that remanded him into the anti-graft body’s custody for fourteen days.
In the latest raid, the officials seized important documents, two laptops, five mobile phones, and 30 USBs from the top civil servant’s house.
They were also able to obtain the password of the arrested bureaucrat’s Blackberry phone, according to local media.
NAB officials have sent the devices to the forensic laboratory to recover the deleted data which could help them connect the dots in the multi-million scam that shook the bureaucracy of Punjab.
The case
The former principal secretary to the prime minister was arrested regarding his role in the Ashiana Iqbal launched during the last stint of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz.
The anti-graft watchdog had been investigating the murky wheeling and dealing regarding the housing project launched by the former Punjab government led by Shehbaz Sharif and the bureaucrat had been facing investigations.
The Grade-22 officer has served as the secretary to the prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as well- he is considered close to the ‘House of Sharif’.
Fawad was arrested after he appeared before the Lahore bureau of the accountability watchdog, for the fourth time in the ongoing probe.
The development comes a day after the anti-graft body announced that it would not arrest the election candidates, though no directives were issued regarding the government officers.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/headline/nab-arrests-bureaucratic-biggie-fawad-hassan-fawad/
Fawad is also being probed by NAB for possession of assets beyond known sources of income as well as for alleged illegal award of CNG contracts.
Former chief minister Punjab and president of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz, Shehbaz has already appeared before NAB in the case while former Lahore Development Authority chairman Ahad Cheema is on judicial remand after having been arrested in the same Ashiana Housing scam.
Former premier Nawaz Sharif, in a brief message, expressed his dismay over the high-profile arrest.
