Faisal Vawda says 'NCA matter was not part of cabinet agenda'

ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Faisal Vawda on Wednesday lambasted ex-prime minister Imran Khan’s adviser for accountability and interior Shahzad Akbar, saying the UK National Crime Agency (NCA) matter was not part of cabinet agenda, ARY News reported.

Speaking on ARY News programme ‘11th Hour’, the former federal minister claimed that the UK National Crime Agency (NCA) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government’s £190 million deal was not the party of then-Cabinet’s agenda.

“It is prime minister’s discretion that he can bring any agenda in the Cabinet meeting,” Faisal Vawda said, noting that a discussion was held on the UK NCA deal a day before the meeting.

Vawda said that when Akbar had briefed the cabinet on the matter, no debate or discussion was held nor were any official documents shown.

“I, Shireen Mazari and Fawad Chaudhry had raised questions on it but all were given a shut-up call,” he recalled. “A story was presented and the way it was told, all the ministers and Imran accepted it and were satisfied with it,” he claimed.

The former minister further said that Shahzad Akbar also possessed the minutes of that particular cabinet meeting – which according to him is also a ‘crime’.

Faisal Vawda said that he had had a fight with Akbar in one of the cabinet meetings after which he had warned the then prime minister that the ex-accountability chief would “run out of the country”. “And this is exactly what happened,” he added.

Referring to senior journalists Arshad Sharif’s murder, Vawda said that many ‘influential people’ will be in jails when the murder case will be properly investigated.

He apparently linked Shahzad Akbar with the senior journalist’s murder, saying that the ex-accountability chief came to Dubai from Spain on the same day when Arshad Sharif was forced to leave the Emirate country.