LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Saturday claimed that Ikram Naveed, a close aide of Shehbaz Sharif’s son-in-law Imran Ali, has admitted his role in causing losses to the national exchequer.
According to the NAB, Ikram Naveed, former chief executive officer (CEO) of the Punjab Power Development Company (PPDC), confessed to have embezzled up to Rs 490 million while in power.
The accused told NAB that he split the money two ways, keeping Rs 360 million for himself while giving Rs 130 million to the former Punjab chief minister’s (CM) son-in-law. The bureau submitted its report in the accountability court here on Saturday in this regard.
Naveed has assured the NAB to return the entire amount he acquired through illegal means.
Earlier on Oct 11, the accountability court had ordered the seizure of property owned by Imran Ali in the same case following its earlier conviction of declaring Imran Ali an absconder on NAB’s request on August 7.
Imran Ali is facing charges of receiving stolen money totaling Rs 130 million from Ikram Naveed.
He first appeared before NAB investigators in April but left for London soon after; failing to appear at his scheduled hearings.
In May this year, the NAB had summoned Ali as he was asked to bring details of a transaction of over Rs 100 million deposited from Public and Private Development Centre’s (PPDC) account to his account but he did not turn up for that hearing either.
The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE), after finding out that Naveed had purchased 19 properties in his and family members’ names, had conducted a probe into the matter involving both friends in 2016. It had declared Naveed guilty of embezzling Rs 450 million but gave Imran Ali a ‘clean chit’.
