LAHORE – An accountability court on Tuesday extended the remand of former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif for further 14 days in a case related to Ashiyana House scheme scam.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) presented the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) the court amid tight security.
Judge Najamul Hassan heard the case while Hamza Shehbaz Sharif and other party leaders were present in the court. A number of party workers have gathered outside the court to show support for their leader.
The NAB had requested the court to extend the remand of the former chief minister for 15 days. The court, however, has reserved the verdict over the plea.
During the hearing, Shehbaz refuted all allegations as baseless, adding that anti-corruption has detected this fraud during his tenure as chief minister of Punjab. He went on to say that NAB could not prove a corruption of a single penny against him.
On Oct 5, the NAB arrested Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) president and Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly in the Rs14 billion Ashiayna-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme case.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/headline/nab-arrests-ex-cm-shehbaz-sharif-in-saaf-pani-case/
He was detained by the anti-graft body at the accountability body’s Lahore office following a hearing in Punjab Saaf Pani Company.
The arrest of former Punjab chief minister followed shocking revelations of ex-principal secretary to PM, Fawad Hasan Fawad, who has become an approver in the cases against Shehbaz Sharif.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/headline/nab-to-produce-shehbaz-sharif-in-court-today/
On Oct 6, NAB court judge Najamul Hassan approved a 10-day physical remand for Shehbaz, directing that the former chief minister be handed over to NAB for interrogation.
At the onset of the hearing, the NAB officials argued that the former chief minister misused his authority and awarded the contract to Lahore Casa Developers unlawfully for the housing scheme.
The NAB officers argued that they need to investigate Shehbaz Sharif further as he inflicted a damage on the national exchequer.
‘All the allegations against me are baseless,’ Shehbaz pleaded in the court in his defence and added that the case was lodged on political grounds.
‘I personally intervened and saved billions in projects to serve the people’ argued Shehbaz Sharif.
The PML-N president affirmed that he did not mint even a single penny, highlighting that Rs 75 billion were saved in the Orange Line Metro Train Project (OLMT).
