SWABI: A court ordered the handing over of former National Assembly speaker and PTI leader Asad Qaiser to the anti-corruption establishment here on Tuesday after granting it his two-day physical remand in a graft case.

Mr Qaiser, who belongs to Marghuz village of Swabi district, was shifted by law-enforcement agencies from Rawalpindi’s Adiala Central Prison here on Monday night.

Islamabad police arrested him on Nov 3 from his house in the federal capital and kept him in custody for 11 days.

The ACE booked Mr Qaiser here over his alleged corruption in the purchase of medical equipment for Swabi’s Gajju Khan Medical College.

It produced him before judicial magistrate Mohammad Khalil Khan in the Swabi Judicial Complex on Tuesday amid tight police security. It sought his 10-day physical remand but the court remanded him in custody for two days.

Mr Qaiser told reporters outside the court that he hoped for “better results” in the case.

He said he was part of the PTI and would remain so.

The former NA speaker was elected twice from a National Assembly and provincial assembly constituency each. He became the speaker of the provincial assembly after the 2013 general elections, while victory in the 2018 polls led him to the office of the NA speaker.

The FIR registered by the ACE said Mr Asad along with four employees of the health department caused a loss of millions of rupees to the exchequer through corruption in the purchase of equipment for the GKMC during the last PTI government.

The other accused, including Dr Shahid Nisar, Dr Saeeda Sirzamin, Dr Sonia Aziz and Dr Niaz Amin, are BPS-18 and BPS-19 employees of the Bacha Khan Teaching Hospital and part of the equipment purchasing committee. They denied the corruption charge against them.

None of the four accused have been arrested but they’re “struggling” to obtain pre-arrest bail from the local court in the case, according to an official.

When contacted, Mr Qaiser’s brother Abdul Waheed blamed the arrest on former defence minister Pervez Khattak and former chief minister Mahmood Khan, who quit the PTI to form the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-Parliamentarians.

He told Dawn that the ACE’s provincial director was a close friend of Mr Mahmood, who “motivated” him to book and arrest Mr Qaiser.

Mr Waheed said former minister Mian Muzaffar Shah of Nowshera district joined the PTI after persuasion by Mr Qaiser that was a major setback for Pervez Khattak, who reacted by getting the latter arrested.

He said his family had feared that action from Mr Khattak as many political activists from his native district were expected to join the PTI.

Mr Qaheed said Mr Qaiser would face all “false” cases against him in the courts.

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2023