ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Wednesday submitted a request to National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser seeking production orders for party President Shehbaz Sharif for the upcoming NA session.
Former NA speaker Ayaz Sadiq in a letter to Qaiser sought a production order for Shehbaz for the forthcoming session on Oct 29. If the production orders are issued, this would be the second session that the NA opposition leader would attend.
Earlier, the National Accountability Bureau had arrested the PML-N president over his alleged involvement in the Ashiana Housing Scheme case.
Shehbaz was arrested inside NAB’s Lahore office where he was summoned to record his statement before a combined investigations team in connection with the Punjab Saaf Pani Company case.
Following the detention, the opposition submitted a requisition calling for a parliamentary session to discuss the sudden development. NAB produced Shehbaz at the session held on October 5 on the directives of Qaiser.
While addressing the NA, Shehbaz had claimed there was an unholy alliance between the ruling party and the anti-graft body. “This is the first time in history that an opposition leader is arrested without any charges in such a hasty manner,” he had said.
Shehbaz had claimed that NAB told him that there are no charges against him for corruption, but rather he was arrested for aiding former army chief Gen (r) Ashfaq Parvez Kayani’s brother Kamran Kayani.
Following the completion of his 10-day remand in the case, the accountability court in Lahore had extended custody by 14-days on October 16. Shehbaz is currently in NAB’s custody.
Shehbaz is accused of ordering the cancellation of the award of contract of Ashiana-i-Iqbal to successful bidder Chaudhry Latif and Sons, leading to the award of the contract to Lahore Casa Developers, a proxy group of Paragon City Private Limited, which resulted in the loss of approximately Rs193 million
He is also accused of directing the Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC) to assign the Ashiana project to the Lahore Development Authority (LDA), resulting in the award of a contract to the Lahore Casa developers, causing the loss of Rs715 million and the ultimate failure of the project.
NAB has also accused Shahbaz of directing the PLDC to award the consultancy services of the Ashiana project to Engineering Consultancy Services Punjab (ECSP) for Rs192 million while the actual cost was supposed to be Rs35 million as quoted by Nespak.
