Saaf Pani Company: NAB summons Shahbaz on June 4, sends questionnaire

LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has decided to summon Shahbaz Sharif as a person, not as the chief minister, in the Saaf Pani Company case on June 4 as the five-year term of the Punjab Assembly ends on May 31.

The decision was made after recording statements of MPA Waheed Gull and Punjab Finance Minister Ayesha Ghaus Pasha. It has been learnt that a questioner has also been sent to the chief minister along with directions to appear with complete record on June 4.

Earlier, the Bureau had summoned Ali Imran Yousaf, the son-in-law of the chief minister, with regard to a transaction of Rs120 million deposited in his bank account from that of the Punjab Power Development Company (PPDC). However, he didn’t appear before the NAB.

The NAB has accused him of receiving millions of rupees from PPDC’s former chief executive officer Ikram Naveed and possessing assets beyond his known sources of income. Ikram was declared guilty by the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) of embezzling Rs450 million in 2016. However, he was later made a director of the Saaf Pani Company.

The NAB so far has arrested five accused in the Saaf Pani Company scam. They are Dr Zahiruddin, Muhammad Saleem Akhtar, Nasir Qadir, Khalid Nadeem Bukhari and Masood Akhtar.

Zahiruddin had been working as the chief technical officer (CTO) in the Saaf Pani Company and Nasir Qadir as chief procurement officer (CFO). Moreover, Associated Consultant Engineer Saleem was attached with the Saaf Pani Company as the procurement and contract specialist.

Meanwhile, MD KSB Pumps Masood was the contractor at the time of financial loss, while Khalid, being a representative from the Housing Ministry, as per the NAB intentionally got approved the contracts and receipts on forged and fabricated documents supposedly on an exorbitant rates estimating to be 40 per cent higher than the actual cost.

It is pertinent to mention that all the clean water projects in the province are running under the Saaf Pani Company and the arrests were made in a single project. There are many other projects that are yet to be probed by the NAB.