- PM-in waiting ‘interrogated for an hour’, handed questionairre comprising 15 queries that he has to submit within 15 days
ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter on Tuesday handed over a questionnaire to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman and prime minister-in waiting Imran Khan in a case involving misuse of official helicopters.
The questionnaire comprises 15 queries and should be submitted to NAB within 15 days, a NAB spokesperson said.
The official said that Imran Khan was “interrogated inside the NAB office in connection to the case for more than an hour”. After receiving the questionnaire, Khan left the office.
Former KP chief minister Pervez Khattak and former provincial assembly speaker Asad Qaiser accompanied Imran to the NAB Peshawar office. Strict security measures were put in place around the NAB office during the high-profile visit.
Imran is accused of using Ecureuil and Mi-17 helicopter of the provincial government for a total of 74 hours, causing Rs2.1 million loss to the national exchequer.
Earlier, Imran was summoned on July 18, however, he failed to appear before the panel sighting electioneering. His lawyer had filed an appeal requesting the accountability watchdog to fix the case after the general elections, “preferably on August 7”.
NAB has already recorded statements of Pervez Khattak and four senior bureaucrats in the case.
“Statements of former KP chief minister (CM) Pervez Khattak and aviation authorities in the case have been recorded,” the spokesman had said.
Khan reportedly used an official MI 171 from Banigala to Kohat, Peshawar, Mardan, Batagram, Dir, and Kumrat.
Moreover, through another helicopter, the PTI chief travelled from Banigala to Peshawar, Kohat, Abbottabad, Haripur, Chitral, Swat, and Nowshehra.
The KP government, however, had denied that Khan used any official helicopter for his private and personal use.
A spokesperson of the PTI-led provincial government had said that since 2013, the government had not used helicopters for any purpose other than official business.
The bureau had said the PTI should have paid the KP government Rs11.1 million for the helicopters but official documents only mention a payment of Rs2.1 million.
The NAB alleged there was documentary evidence that Khan had paid Rs2.1 million for two helicopters belonging to the KP government — an MI 171 and an Ecureuil — for a total of 74 hours, which amounts to Rs28,000 spent for every hour the helicopters were used.
In a statement, the PTI had welcomed NAB’s investigation into alleged misuse of helicopter and stated that it always supports fair investigations.