LAHORE: An accountability court on Monday extended physical remand of Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif for 10 more days in Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme scam.

The court also granted three-day transit remand of Mr Sharif to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to produce him in the National Assembly session. The assembly speaker had issued production orders for the opposition leader for his attendance in the Monday evening session.

Extraordinary security measures were taken by Rangers and police before appearance of Mr Sharif in the court as roads leading to the Judicial Complex were cordoned off by placing containers and barbed wires. However, hundreds of PML-N workers managed to reach the complex.

NAB gets Opp leader’s three-day transit remand for production in NA

Police personnel used baton-charge when the party’s workers tried to enter the complex. Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz was present in the court while police restrained other party leaders, including Marriyum Aurangzeb and Azma Bokhari, outside the complex.

At the outset of the proceedings, Mr Sharif complained to the court that despite being a cancer survivor he was not being provided with medical facilities as per his doctor’s instructions. He also complained that the NAB was not allowing his family to visit him even on scheduled meeting days. Even Kulbhushan Yadav was allowed to meet his family, the former CM said.

At this, accountability court judge Syed Najamul Hassan Bokhari directed the NAB director general to personally look into the matter and provide all legal and permissible facilities to Mr Sharif, including medication and visitation.

Mr Sharif told the court that the bureau arrested him in the Ashiana housing scheme case, but kept interrogating him about other projects of the previous government, including the laptop scheme and the Saaf Pani project. The NAB misled the court as well as the whole nation regarding his case. He further said that the bureau failed to prove even a single allegation against him.

NAB Special Prosecutor Waris Ali Janjua interrupted the opposition leader and said that during the remand Mr Sharif posed queries rather than answering the interrogators. He told the court that the suspect, during the previous physical remand, revealed that second bidding of the housing scheme was conducted for infrastructure development by Punjab Land Development Company in December 2013. The record showed that the suspect unlawfully halted the bidding in March 2014 and handed over the project to the Lahore Development Authority (LDA).

The prosecutor further said that the then LDA director Ahad Khan Cheema and an officer, Bilal Kidwai (suspects in the same case), prepared a fraudulent feasibility report justifying public-private partnership mode for the housing scheme. He said the LDA determined Rs13.8 billion as the price for the land, while its market price was Rs23.5 billion.

The prosecutor asked the court to extend physical remand of the suspect for 15 days.

Advocates Azam Tarar and Amjad Pervaiz argued on behalf of Mr Sharif and opposed the NAB’s request. They said the prosecution failed to bring on record any incriminating evidence against Mr Sharif, adding that the scandal was based on documentary evidence, which was already collected by the bureau. They said no allegation of corruption or receiving kickbacks had been levelled against Mr Sharif.

The judge observed that it was a case of white collar crime committed in a mega project and the suspect had been allegedly unduly interfering in the process in sheer violation of laws. The judge granted the NAB 10-day physical remand of Mr Sharif directing it to produce him again before the court on Nov 7.

Punjab Assembly opposition leader Hamza Shahbaz told the media outside the court that Prime Minister Imran Khan had been hurling threats at the opposition at his press conferences. “He is not Mr Clean,” said Mr Hamza, adding that Mr Khan became the prime minister through fake votes.

He further said it was his father Shahbaz Sharif’s third appearance before the court and the NAB was only beating about the bush. There was no difference between the NAB and Mansha Bamm, he claimed. “What are Pervaiz Khattak, Aleem Khan and Zulfi Bokhari doing in the cabinet of Imran Khan?” Hamza said, questioning the partiality of the anti-corruption watchdog.

Talking to the media, Marriyum Aurangzeb condemned the hurdles placed on the roads by police. She claimed that Mr Sharif was being subjected to political victimisation in the name of accountability.

Published in Dawn, October 30th , 2018