LAHORE: An accountability court on Saturday remanded Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz president Shahbaz Sharif in 10-day custody of the National Accoun­tability Bureau (NAB) for investigation into the Rs14 billion Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme case.

Earlier, NAB and police officials brought Mr Sharif, who is also leader of opposition in the National Assembly, to the Lahore Judicial Complex amid strict security arrangements. The roads leading to the complex were cordoned off in addition to deployment of a heavy police contingent in and outside the complex. Police also denied entry to litigants and media persons to the premises.

Hundreds of charged PML-N workers stayed outside the complex the whole day and kept raising slogans against NAB and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government. Shahbaz Sharif’s sons Hamza Shahbaz and Salman Shahbaz, along with other PML-N leaders including Marriyum Aurangzeb, Rana Sanaullah Khan, Sohail Zia Butt, Shaista Pervez Malik, Saira Afzal Tarar and Azma Bokhari, turned up in the court.

Ex-CM tells judge he committed no illegality; charged PML-N workers incur wrath of police outside accountability court

Police resorted to baton-charge when PML-N workers climbed the armoured vehicle carrying Shahbaz Sharif. A party worker fell unconscious and many others suffered minor injuries.

Initially, former Punjab chief minister Shahbaz was taken to the chamber of Justice Syed Najamul Hassan Bokhari for the hearing of the case, but later the judge on the request of Mr Sharif’s lawyers took up the matter in the courtroom that was filled to capacity.

NAB Special Prosecutor Waris Ali Janjua submitted an application to the court seeking 15-day physical remand of Mr Sharif. In his arguments, the prosecutor said the Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC) following due approval of its board of directors (BoD) awarded the contract for infrastructure development of the Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme to the successful bidder — Ch. A. Latif & Sons in 2013.

He said the PLDC issued Rs75 million as mobilisation advance to the company whereas no complaint was received by the company’s BoD against the bidding process.

However, the prosecutor said, acting unlawfully on a so-called complaint, Mr Sharif as the then chief minister of Punjab assumed powers of the PLDC board and referred the matter to the Anti-Corruption Establishment to browbeat the successful bidder.

He said the investigation revealed that a company namely CONPRO Services (Pvt) Limited, which had filed the so-called complaint, had bribed then Punjab implementation secretary Fawad Hassan Fawad.

The prosecutor argued that the former chief minister without lawful authority ordered the PLDC to entrust the housing project to the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) when his close aide Ahad Khan Cheema was heading the authority as its director general.

The prosecutor alleged that the LDA undertook the project under public-private partnership to “give unlawful benefit” to a firm Bismillah Engineering Services, which was a proxy firm of Paragon City (Pvt) Limited.

He asked the court to grant NAB 15-day physical remand of accused Shahbaz Sharif for “interrogation, confrontation and recovery of crime proceeds”.

On being allowed to speak, Mr Sharif said he had not committed any illegality, but had worked for the progress of the country. He said the contract was cancelled and M/S Ch. A. Latif & Sons was blacklisted following complaints of corruption.

Advocates Azam Nazir Tarar and Amjad Pervez, representing the PML-N president, opposed NAB’s application for physical remand of their client. They said Mr Sharif all the time had been attending the inquiry proceedings of NAB even when he was chief minister of Punjab.

Advocate Tarar argued Mr Sharif had already been “confronted” with co-suspects Cheema and Fawad. He said the alleged scam was based on documentary evidence and therefore there was no need of physical remand.

Advocate Pervez said Chaudhry Latif (the previous contractor) was an absconder in a case pending adjudication in an anti-corruption court. He said Rs900 million had been recovered from the company in a corruption case while the company stood blacklisted in another case.

The judge in his remand order observed that this was the first physical remand of the accused and he had been served with grounds of arrest. He noted that being white-collar crime of mega corruption the hidden aspects were yet to be unearthed by joining the suspect in investigation, especially the question of misuse of power.

“So the application is allowed and physical remand of the accused Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif is granted for ten days. He will be produced before the court on Oct 16,” the judge wrote in his order.

Then Mr Sharif was taken back to the lockup in the NAB headquarters at Thokar Niaz Beg and this time baton-wielding police personnel were standing atop the armoured vehicle which carried the PML-N leader.

Political victimisation, selective justice

Later talking to media reporters outside the accountability court, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said, “This is (a case of) sheer political victimisation” and that “the incompetent government of the PTI is employing malicious tactics”.

She contended that NAB had failed to establish corruption of even a penny against Mr Sharif.

Ms Aurangzeb alleged that the PTI was unable to defeat the PML-N politically so it had been using NAB for its nefarious designs.

NAB had summoned Mr Sharif in the Saaf Pani Company’s inquiry, but arrested him in the Ashiana case, she said.

Rana Sanaullah said the arrest of Shahbaz Sharif was “beyond any logic” and an act of political victimisation. He said the PML-N would resist such moves tooth and nail.

Former finance minister Ishaq Dar also described the arrest of Shahbaz Sharif as a clear case of political victimisation.

He said in a statement Shahbaz Sharif had been endeavouring to develop Punjab and working in this direction with devotion, adding that even international leaders praised the former chief minister for the changes he had brought to the province.

“The objective behind his arrest is to influence the coming by-elections which the PML-N is set to win because the fraud in the name of Tabdeeli had been exposed within two months,” Mr Dar said.

“Shahbaz Sharif’s arrest is highly condemnable and a dirty tactic,” he said adding that “selective justice is harming Pakistan”.

He said NAB had become a “political tool to attack opponents and to fix elections” as had “happened before the July 25 elections.

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2018