Man with Rs 5mn in ‘his bank account’ vows to prove innocence before NAB

ISLAMABAD: A worker of a local factory in Lahore had a ground pulled under from his feet after his name appeared in a benami account and he was subsequently summoned by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

The NAB Karachi had summoned Ali Ahsan, a resident of Ferozwala and worker at a chemical factory of Lahore, for questioning on April 24 over five million rupees amount deposited in an account in his name.

Speaking in the ARY News programme ‘Power Play’ hosted by Arshad Sharif, Ali said he works as a office boy at a factory located in Shadra.

“I am Intermediate qualified and my mother works as a sewing machine operator to earn livelihood,” he explained.

He said a NAB official in a plain-clothed dress had arrived to his residence to serve a notice.

Ali Ahsan said he never visited Karachi in his life, asking “how could his account have Rs 5 million in Karachi.”

He insisted that he wasn’t a thief and vowed to present before the NAB to prove his innocence.

Ahsan said he didn’t even know Agha Siraj Durrani. “I came to know through the NAB notice that I have a bank account and it has Rs 5 million in it,” he added.

The NAB found that in February 2018, five cheques with Rs one million each were deposited in a bank in the name of Ali Ahsan.

The scandal recently emerged, in which former president Asif Ali Zardari, his sister Faryal Talpur and others facing charges of laundering more than Rs35 billion through fake bank accounts.

The NAB investigation against Sindh Assembly’s Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani has highlighted the scam from another angle with emergence of a fake bank account in the probe.

Meanwhile, chairman NAB Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal has announced to bear expenses of Ali  Ahsan’s traveling and lodging in Karachi after he was summoned by NAB Karachi in an inquiry over benami account found in his name.