NAB denies any 'plan' to arrest Moonis Elahi

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Wednesday denied reports that anti-graft watchdog wanted to arrest PML-Q leader and federal minister Moonis Elahi on instructions of someone, ARY News reported.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the bureau said that there is no pending inquiry against Moonis Elahi and termed such reports as part of propaganda against the national graft buster.

The statement from the anti-corruption watchdog comes a day after PML-Q senior leader and former Punjab chief minister Pervaiz Elahi accused the government of forcing the National Accountability Bureau to target the PML-Q, including its leader Moonis Elahi, who is also a federal minister.

“The NAB officials said that there are no cases to be made against them so then they ordered the NAB that ‘if you keep on looking you will find something,” he claimed in an interview with a private news channel.

In 2021, the National Accountability Bureau closed two inquiries pending for the last 20 years against PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi.

The NAB prosecutor informed the high court division bench headed by Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan that the bureau had closed a graft inquiry against Chaudhry brothers.

PML-Q leaders Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi had challenged the assets inquiry initiated by the National Accountability Bureau against them in the high court.