Chaudhrys appear before NAB again

LAHORE: Chaudhrys of Gujrat - former prime minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi - again appeared before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Lahore on Friday in a case of having assets beyond their known sources of income. NAB officials told this correspondent that both the cousins appeared before the investigators at around 11: 30am and stayed there for around 40 minutes and recorded their statements. The officials said Ch Shujaat and Ch Pervaiz also submitted filled in questionnaires, containing details of their properties, bank accounts, assets, assets details of their wives, children and grandchildren, which were handed over to them by NAB during their previous appearance in November last month. Similarly, investigators also questioned PML-Q leaders about details submitted by various departments whom NAB had approached including deputy commissioners of Gujranwala, Gujrat, DG Lahore Development Authority, Senior Member Board of Revenue, chairman FBR. The NAB official said details of funding on election campaigns of 2002 and 2008 have also been sought from both the cousins and after securitising all the collected material future course of action will be decided. The case against Ch Shujaat and Ch Pervaiz was initiated by NAB back in 2000 but it remained in cold storage till November 2017. The Bureau restarted the probe soon after the July 28, 2017 judgment of the Supreme Court on Panama case due to which former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was disqualified. Speaking to the media, Pervaiz Elahi had said he was “not scared of investigations. This is not new for us, as during the Bhutto government, my family faced 135 cases. I have always respected institutions.”