PESHAWAR: The National Accountability Bureau chairman has issued warrants for the arrest of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader retired Captain Mohammad Safdar, who appeared before a NAB team here on Thursday in connection with an ongoing inquiry against him for allegedly holding assets beyond means.

A NAB official confirmed the issuance of arrest warrants and said Mr Safdar, who was a son-in-law of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, would be taken into custody after 10 days.

Mr Safdar told reporters outside the NAB regional headquarters in Peshawar that the relevant officials had informed him about the issuance of warrants for his arrest by the bureau’s chairman.

The inquiry against him has been in progress for around two years over the possession of assets allegedly disproportionate to known sources of his income, which is a crime under the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999.

The NAB executive board, in a meeting chaired by bureau chairman retired Justice Javed Iqbal in Islamabad earlier in the week, had reviewed progress on different inquiries against some politicians, including retired Captain Mohammad Safdar, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and PML-N leader Engineer Amir Muqam, over the alleged accumulation of wealth beyond known sources of their income.

Former PML-N MNA appears before bureau team over alleged illegal assets

Mr Safdar reached the NAB regional headquarters in the presence of scores of party workers and affiliated lawyers and remained inside the building for over two hours.

He told reporters that PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif would return from abroad in near future after the treatment of his ailment.

The PML-N leader said he was not worried about arrest and had brought medicines he used for certain health problems with him over the possibility of arrest.

He said the properties that NAB had been holding an inquiry about had been inherited by him and only his late grandfather could provide information about them.

Mr Safdar said it was ironic that the NAB was asking him about the properties of his late father and grandfather.

He said instead of a questionnaire, the investigation team had handed him over sort of a bulky dictionary’.

The PML-N leader said he had explained his assets both moveable and immovable to the NAB several times but the bureau was bent on arresting him at the behest of the current PTI-led government.

He said he couldn’t be cowed down by such moves.

Mr Safdar said the NAB chairman should not act at the behest of Prime Minister Imran Khan as in future, the latter won’t come to save his skin.

The NAB executive board had given approval to the start of probe in early 2018 over a complaint sent to the bureau by a citizen about the former lawmaker’s assets allegedly disproportionate to known sources of his income.

The complainant had alleged that Mr Safdar owned 300 kanals of land, a 30 kanals plot, a one kanal house, a flour mills and other properties in Mansehra district.

Mr Safdar had also appeared before the NAB Combined Investigation Team in Oct 2018 during the initial asset probe.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2020