LAHORE, May 11: Officials in the Punjab government or in its police department expressed on Friday their ignorance about the reported constitution of a committee by the federal government to probe the alleged abduction of Nawaz Sahrif’s former accountant by the FIA.

However, sources in the federal government confirmed the constitution of a committee consisting of an IG, directors of the ISI and the IB and an additional secretary to look into the allegations of the abduction of Muhammad Akram. They said that the committee had been constituted on the directions of the interior ministry.

Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan who blames Interior Minister Rehman Malik for the alleged abduction said the provincial government had no knowledge of the committee. Punjab police are investigating the case. “Akram was adducted by the FIA on the directions of Rehman Malik and we want his arrest,” he told Dawn.

Shadman Lahore police have already registered a case on the complaint of accountant Muhammad Akram alleging that he was abducted by some unknown officials of the FIA on May 3 for getting details of the financial affairs of the PML-N president.

Senior police officials told Dawn that the investigations of the case had been entrusted to Lahore CCPO Aslam Tarin.

They reported Akram as having said that he was rounded up by some FIA officials in Shadman on May 3. They took him to some undisclosed place and quizzed him about Sharif’s financial matters. They released him after he said that he was a heart patient and could not bear pressure, and he did not know anything about the financial affairs of the Sharif family as he had left their job many years ago, Akram was quoted as having said.