LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on a petition moved by Fawad Hassan Fawad, former principal secretary to former prime minister, challenging his arrest in illegal assets case.
Fawad’s counsel argued before a division bench that the NAB initially arrested his client in a corruption scam relating to Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC) and Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme. He said the bureau made a second arrest of Fawad during the custody in another reference of acquiring assets beyond means. He argued that the second arrest of the petitioner in the illegal asset’s case was in violation of Section 24 of the NAB Ordinance 1999.
The counsel pleaded that the bureau did not meet the legal requirements before making the arrest of the petitioner. Therefore, he requested the court to set aside the arrest of the petitioner for being unlawful.
The bench headed by Justice Muhammad Tariq Abbasi directed the NAB to submit its reply by next week. The bench directed the petitioner’s counsel to file a separate petition for constitution of a medical board to examine Fawad’s health.
The NAB accused Fawad of misusing authority being secretary, implementation, of former Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and violated procurement rules to award contract of the housing scheme to a company of his choice. It said initially Rs1.5 billion contract was given to successful bidder –M/s Chaudhry Latif and Sons.
The bureau alleged that Fawad cancelled the contract and awarded the same to M/s Lahore Casa Developers on an inflated price of Rs4 billion. It said the government had to pay Rs6 million as fine to the successful bidder.
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