LAHORE: Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary Fawad Hasan Fawad on Friday appeared before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Scheme scam.
Fawad is suspected of having misused his authority while he was posted in the Punjab government. He is accused of illegally awarding the contract for the said housing scheme of the provincial government.
According to NAB, the contract for the project was awarded to a construction company titled Lahore Casa Developers — a proxy group of Paragon City (Pvt) Limited, which is said to be owned by Railways Minister Saad Rafique, by Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his aides instead of Chaudhry Latif and Sons.
Fawad, who was a senior bureaucrat in the Punjab government at the time, levelled charges of wrongdoings against Chaudhry Latif and Sons in order for the contract to be awarded to Casa Developers.
Sources say the top bureaucrat was questioned for almost an hour and was also given a questionnaire by the authorities.
Fawad has appeared before NAB investigators twice before.
The bureau has already arrested ex-Lahore Development Authority (LDA) director general Ahad Cheema over his alleged involvement in the scam.
On January 22, Shehbaz recorded his statement at NAB in the inquiry related to the housing scheme.