Ashiana Housing case: Court sends Shehbaz Sharif to jail on judicial remand
Anti-graft watchdog's prosecutor Waris Ali Janjua requested the court to extend Shehbaz's remand.
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Accountability court on Thursday has sent Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president and Opposition Leader in the National Assembly (NA) Shehbaz Sharif to jail on judicial remand in Ashiana Housing scandal after his previous physical remand ended.
During the hearing, anti-graft watchdog’s prosecutor Waris Ali Janjua requested the court to extend Shehbaz Sharif’s remand which was rejected.
Meanwhile, police personnel also arrested several PML-N workers for clashing with the security officers over removing barriers outside the court.
Shehbaz Sharif’s arrest
NAB had arrested Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif in the Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Scheme scam on October 5. The former chief minister was charged with awarding illegal contracts to his favorite firm.
He was apprehended during his appearance before NAB in Saaf Pani Company scam. Sources told that three files were tabled before him. The bureau quizzed Sharif regarding a tender awarded to a private consultancy company for a survey of the Saaf Pani company.
The PML-N president had failed to satisfy the probing team of the bureau during the investigation and was ultimately arrested.
The anti-graft watchdog had claimed that the company did not conduct any kind of survey but nevertheless was provided a lucrative sum of Rs 1.5 billion.
Ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s principal secretary Fawad Hassan Fawad became an approver in the case. Fawad Hassan Fawad, in his statement before NAB, had claimed that he had awarded a contract to a “favourite firm” in the Rs14 billion Ashiana Housing project at the behest of Shahbaz Sharif.
The anti-graft agency said that the contract for the housing scheme was won by a construction company titled Chaudhry Latif and Sons but Sharif cancelled it and later on awarded the contract to Lahore Casa Developers – a proxy group of Paragon City (Pvt) Limited, which is said to be owned by ex-Railways Minister Saad Rafique”.
Shehbaz Sharif’s remand
Shehbaz Sharif was handed over to NAB on a 10-day physical remand to probe Ashiana Housing scandal on October 7.
NAB prosecutor Waris Ali Janjua pleaded that Shehbaz Sharif inflicted millions of rupees loss on national exchequer by canceling scheme’s contract with Latif Sons and awarding it to CASA Developers.
PML-N president denied all the charges against him and asserted that he was not involved in a corruption of a single penny.
