–Reference alleges Shehbaz, aides misused authority and subsequently embezzled funds causing huge loss to national kitty
LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Saturday filed a supplementary reference in court against Shehbaz Sharif, president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, along with 12 others, including former principal secretary to prime minister Fawad Hasan Fawad and former director general of Lahore Development Authority (LDA) Ahad Cheema, in the Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Scheme scandal.
According to details, the inquiry in the reference was initiated on January 10 while investigation into the corruption charges began on May 4 this year.
Shehbaz and his alleged accomplices are accused of misusing authority and the subsequent embezzlement of funds which caused a heavy loss to the national exchequer.
The supplementary reference alleges that Shehbaz had usurped “the powers of Board of Directors of Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC) and transferred the project of Ashiana-e-Iqbal from PLDC to LDA.”
The reference further states that the former Punjab chief minister, in “connivance” with Cheema, had awarded the contract to an illegible proxy which had resulted in “failure of [the] project and dishonest loss to [the] state exchequer and deprived 61,000 poor applicants from houses”.
As per the reference, Shehbaz Sharif through his “illegal and unlawful acts while misusing his authority,” caused a loss to the state exchequer amounting to Rs660 million and also led to an escalation of the project cost by approximately Rs3.39 billion.
Shehbaz, in the Ashiyana-e-Iqbal Housing scam, is accused of cancelling the award of the project to successful bidder M/s Chaudhry Latif and Sons and instead obliging M/s Lahore Casa Developers (JV) — a proxy group of M/s Paragon City (Pvt) Limited, which the bureau claims was developed by former railways minister Khawaja Saad Rafique.
The anti-graft body arrested the former Punjab CM in the Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Scheme scam on October 5. He was apprehended during his appearance before NAB in the Saaf Pani Company scam.
Meanwhile, Shehbaz’s residence in Ministers’ Enclave in Islamabad has been declared a sub-jail and his travel to Lahore has been cancelled given that his medical condition requires examination by doctors in the coming days.
Shehbaz Sharif was elected as chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) unopposed on Friday after a months-long tussle between the government and opposition over allowing the PML-N president to head the apex accountability body of parliament.
Following his unanimous nomination, Shehbaz expressed gratitude to the treasury and opposition parties, saying he would “take everyone along and move forward”.
The argument floated by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government against Shehbaz was that the NA opposition leader can’t head the apex parliamentary committee as he would be auditing his brother, ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s projects, besides he was also under scrutiny for alleged corruption.
