LAHORE:The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has told the Lahore High Court that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPA Ghazanfar Abbas Cheena and his family accumulated assets beyond known sources of income and that too in the names of their benamidars.
The bureau alleged this in a report filed with the court in response to a petition by Mr Cheena challenging an inquiry of assets beyond means against him. The report also accused the PTI MPA of misappropriating the state land and said the proceedings against the petitioner in the NAB are being carried out strictly in accordance with law. It said the petitioner appeared before the NAB multiple times and submitted some documents pertaining to the properties but also undertook to produce the documents to the additional sources of income as well as documents about his expenditures. Denying a claim of the petitioner, the report said the inquiry in question was never recommended for closure by the NAB nor was it closed at any stage. It said a press release of the bureau about the subject inquiry referred to by the petitioner might have been due to some clerical mistake. The NAB said the case of the petition is at inquiry stage and an inquiry of the offence of assets beyond means requires collection of data from multiple jurisdictions. It said the inquiry would be concluded after analysis and perusal of all the records. The bureau requested the court to dismiss the petition of Cheena being devoid of merits. Mr Cheena had pleaded before the court that all of his assets were already declared in the tax documents before the authorities concerned.