£190m settlement case: Arrest warrants of Shahzad Akbar, others issued

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Friday issued arrest warrants for former premier Imran Khan’s aides Shahzad Akbar, Zulfi Bukhari and two others in the £190 million settlement case, ARY News reported.

The development came hours after the accountability bureau filed a reference in the £190 million settlement case, officially nominating former prime minister Imran Khan as accused in the case.

A total of eight people have been nominated in the case. Others beside Imran include his wife, Bushra Bibi, her friend Farhat Shahzadi aka Farah Gogi, PTI leader Zulfi Bukhari, former accountability czar Shahzad Akbar and Barrister Zia-ul-Mustafa Naseem.

The reference was filed as the anti-graft buster concludes its investigation with the court sending the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief on judicial remand in the case.

Following the filing of reference, NAB Chairman issued arrests warrants for Shahzad Akbar, Zulfi Bukhari, Farah Gogi and Zia-ul-Mustafa Naseem.

The warrants were forwarded to DG NAB Rawalpindi, IG Islamabad and IG Punjab. NAB chairman directed the officials to arrest the accused and produce them in court.

NCA £190m scandal

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had launched an investigation against Imran Khan and his wife and others for the alleged gain of hundreds of canals of land in the name of Al Qadir University Trust, which reportedly caused a loss of 190 million pounds to the national exchequer.

As per the charges, the former prime minister and others accused allegedly adjusted Rs50 billion — 190 million pounds at the time — sent by Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) to the government.

The PTI chief registered Trust for Al-Qadir University Project on Dec 26, 2019.