Perks of being well-connected: NAB releases accused within hours of arrest

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday freed PPP’s candidate Tikka Iqbal and Shiekh Afzal’s son Haris Afzal after some hours of their formal arrest, reportedly due to pressure of some powerful circles.

According to a local newspaper, NAB had arrested Haris Afzal on Wednesday morning on charges of selling the family’s frozen property in Dubai and withdrawing a 52.5 million Dirham amount from his and Khawra’s accounts from Emirates Bank’s Dubai branch.

The property, situated in Dubai’s affluent Emirates Hill neighbourhood, had been frozen along with other assets belonging to the accused after they failed to return a loan obtained from BoP.

Offices of Punjab NAB and NAB Headquarters in Islamabad remained open till 4:00 am Thursday to ensure the release of Haris Afzal, sources revealed.

Initially, the officials of Financial Crime Investigation Wing (FCIW) of NAB Punjab had refused to release the accused taking a stance that they had made a formal arrest of the accused on record, but after receiving a written message at 2:40 am, Haris Afzal was released at about 4:00 am, sources further revealed.

After this development, the BoP management sent a letter to the NAB chairman recording protest on the illegal release of Haris Afzal.

Tikka set free

NAB has also freed the former provincial minister and current candidate for Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) for NA-166 and PP-230 Tikka Muhammad Iqbal in connection with the notorious Qasre Zauq scandal, barely a few hours after his arrest, reportedly on pressure of some powerful circles, sources said.

Iqbal was accused of facilitating the sale of the Qasre Zauq Plaza which had been frozen by the bureau in connection with the Rs 1.38 billion fraud case. Iqbal had acted as a guarantor in the sale of the property, in return for monetary benefits from the family of former senator Gulzar Khan.

NAB Spokesman Ramzan Sajid said that the allegations regarding pressure from any quarters were baseless. He confirmed the fact that both the accused had been released by the NAB.