NAB prepares reference against Shehbaz in corruption case

LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has prepared a reference against former chief minister Punjab, Shehbaz Sharif in the Ashiana Housing scam case, ARY News reported on Wednesday.

The team of the accountability watchdog briefed about the case to NAB Lahore chairman today (Wednesday).

Sources informed that the NAB team had found ex-CM Punjab and others misused their authority to benefit their blue-eyed officers in the housing project.

The NAB meeting was informed that Sharif reportedly forced Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC) chairman to follow his ‘unlawful’ instructions. “Fawad Hasan Fawad in connivance with Shehbaz Sharif got the contracts of some companies cancelled”, said the source.

The meeting was further told that Shehbaz Sharif ordered transfer of contract awarding powers from PLDC to Lahore Development Authority. Ahad Khan Cheema was the director general of LDA at that time.

On Oct 5, the NAB team had arrested Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz president, Shehbaz Sharif, in Rs 14 billion Ashiana housing society case.

Sharif was taken into custody at the NAB Lahore office where he had come to record his statement.

Shahbaz’s blue-eyed officers, Lahore Development Authority former director general Ahad Cheema and Fawad Hasan Fawad, were already in NAB custody in the Ashiana Housing case.

Fawad Hasan Fawad, former principal secretary to ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif, in his statement before NAB in August claimed that he had awarded a contract to a “favourite firm” in the Rs14bn Ashiana Housing project on Shahbaz’s behest.