Agha Siraj finds another way to evade NAB questioning

KARACHI: Amid National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) complaints that Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani spends much time in the assembly and little in its custody hindering investigation against him, another production order was issued on Thursday to enable him to chair a meeting of the provincial legislature’s business advisory committee, ARY News reported.

The new production order for Durrani was issued after the previous one ceased to have effect owing to adjournment of the assembly session till March 21. The meeting, which is scheduled to be held on Friday at 11:00 am, will be attended by representatives of all parliamentary parties.

During the hearing of assets beyond means case on March 11, the NAB prosecutor had complained to an accountability court that the bureau had hardly two days to carry out investigation against the speaker as he attended the Sindh Assembly sessions daily. “Durrani spends little time in NAB custody.”

He, therefore, had pleaded with the judge to extend his physical remand so that the bureau could complete its investigation.

Granting NAB’s plea, the accountability court had extended the physical remand of the speaker until March 21.

The prosecutor further said that more properties owned by the accused have surfaced during the investigation. Durrani had a property in Abbottabad, whose value he had declared at Rs4 million against the actual value of Rs27 million, he said, adding ten wristwatches worth millions of rupees, gold and foreign currency were found from the suspect’s lockers.