Accountability court extends Shehbaz Sharif’s remand by 14 days

LAHORE: The accountability court on Saturday approved 14-day extension in physical remand of former chief minister Punjab, Shehbaz Sharif, as requested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in Ashiana Housing scheme case, ARY News reported.

During the hearing today, the accountability watchdog requested extension in physical remand of Sharif, stating that it couldn’t ‘properly’ investigate the former CM because of his frequent participation in the assembly sessions after his production orders were issued.

The NAB investigation officer said their probe into the case was still left. To which, Shehbaz Sharif replied that the NAB had produced no evidence against him, hence plea for extension in physical remand was out of question.

The investigation officer also told the court that Shehbaz Sharif had threatened him during the probe, however, the former CM Punjab denied the claim.

Besides, the NAB had also requested the court to allow it to arrest Shehbaz Sharif in a case pertaining to illegal construction of a bridge linking to Ramzan Sugar Mills.

According to NAB, Sharif approved construction of a bridge linking to their mills out of the public money in Chiniot.

It further said that Hamza Shehbaz and his brother in the capacity of directors (Ramzan Sugar Mills) got constructed a bridge linking to their mills out of the public money in Chiniot. It is reported that an amount of Rs200 million was approved by then chief minister Shahbaz Sharif for construction of the bridge. The NAB team had also quizzed Hamza about the case as well.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz president was brought to Lahore’s accountability court from Islamabad by the NAB team for appearance earlier in the day.

The NAB had arrested Shehbaz Sharif in Rs 14 billion Ashiana housing society case on October 5.

According to NAB, “the contract for the housing scheme was won by a construction company titled Chaudhry Latif and Sons but former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif and his aides awarded the Rs 14 billion contract to Lahore Casa Developers – a proxy group of Paragon City (Pvt) Limited, which is said to be owned by Railways Minister Saad Rafique”.

“Fawad, who was implementation secretary to the chief minister Punjab at the time, levelled charges of wrongdoings against Chaudhry Latif and Sons in order for the contract to be awarded to Casa Developers.”