Liquor licence case: NAB decides to close inquiry against Buzdar

LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday apprised the Lahore High Court that it had decided to close the inquiry against former Punjab chief minister Usman Buzdar in a case involving the issuance of a liquor licence.

The development came when a two-member bench of the LHC, headed by Ali Baqar Najafi, was hearing a petition filed by a private hotel.

The NAB prosecutor apprised the bench that the anti-graft watchdog’s regional board had sent its recommendation to the body’s chairman to end the inquiry against the former chief minister. At the outset of Thursday’s hearing, Ajaz Awan, the counsel of the private hotel to which the liquor license was issued, informed the judges that a high court’s single-judge bench had declared the issuance of license in accordance with law. The lawyer was of the view that an inquiry without any aim had been carried out for the past three years and pleaded with the court to close the investigations. “Under the NAB amendment law, this inquiry cannot continue,” argued the lawyer.

In the light of NAB’s response, the court wrapped up the case.

Earlier on December 5, an accountability court extended the interim bail of the former chief minister of Punjab till December 19 in the liquor licence case.

It is pertinent to mention here that the former Punjab chief minister was facing NAB investigations for issuing a liquor licence to an under-construction hotel in violation of law.