Shahbaz’s 132-day NAB imprisonment ends

ISLAMABAD: Shahbaz Sharif will be released after 132-day incarceration from the custody of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) since his arrest on October 5, 2018. He primarily spent several weeks in the NAB cell of Lahore during which he was questioned by the investigators about the Ashiana Housing Scheme. However, whenever the National Assembly held its sessions, he was shifted to a house, declared sub-jail, in Ministers’ Enclave of the federal capital in the NAB custody in the wake of issuance of his production orders by Speaker Asad Qaisar.

Subsequently, when the sessions were prorogued, he stayed put in the ministers’ enclave for treatment and to preside over the meetings of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) as he was later unanimously elected as its chairman as part of an agreement with the ruling coalition.

For residing in the ministers’ colony, Shahbaz Sharif was frequently scoffed at by the government leaders, who constantly objected to his stay here. He continued to get medical attention for his multiple ailments from a panel of doctors, who kept visiting him.

This was the second considerably long detention of Shahbaz Sharif after the October 12, 1999 takeover by Pervez Musharraf. He along with Nawaz Sharif and several others was arrested on the same day. They were released after fourteen months on Dec 10, 2000 with the Sharifs’ exile.

Shahbaz Sharif and Fawad Hassan Fawad have been granted bail by the LHC in the original case - Ashiana Housing Scheme – in which the NAB had initially arrested them. The case relating to the Ramzan Sugar Mill owned by the Sharifs was initiated by the NAB months after Shahbaz Sharif’s arrest by the anti-corruption watchdog.

Similarly, the case of assets beyond means was started against Fawad Hassan long time after his detention. Both were bailed out in the original case - Ashiana Housing Scheme. However, Fawad Hassan, the former principal secretary to ex-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, was denied the bail in the assets beyond means case. He was taken into custody in July last year.

When Shahbaz Sharif was detained by the NAB in the Ashiana Housing Scheme case in early October last year, he had actually been summoned by it to answer questions pertaining to investigation into the Saaf Pani Company. By that time, he had been elected as the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly.

According to a NAB notice sent to Shahbaz Sharif on January 16, 2018, he was accused of ordering the cancellation of award of contract of Ashiana Scheme to successful bidder Latif Sons, leading to its award to Lahore Casa Developers, an alleged proxy group of Paragon City Private Limited, which resulted in a huge loss.

Shahbaz Sharif was also accused of directing the Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC) to assign Ashiana project to the Lahore Development Authority (LDA), resulting in the award of contract to the Lahore Casa developers, causing a heavy loss and the ultimate failure of the project. The NAB alleged that Shahbaz Sharif directed the PLDC to give the consultancy services of the Ashiana project to Engineering Consultancy Services Punjab (ECSP) for Rs192 million while the actual cost was supposed to be Rs35 million as quoted by Nespak.

However, documents showed that the contract of Latif Sons for the project was never cancelled but rescinded following a mutual agreement between the contractor and PLDC. Shahbaz Sharif and Fawad Hassan were accused of having revoked the agreement with an alleged motive to give the same to a favourite company.

The agreement presented before the LHC contained the signature of both the parties - Latif Sons and PLDC - announcing that they agree that the agreement dated Feb 16, 2013 for the execution of the project for a contract price of Pak Rs1495,222824 is immediately terminated and rescinded on the date of its execution.

The agreement signed on November 9, 2013 mentioned that the parties with freewill and consent have mutually resolved to rescind the agreement dated Feb 15, 2013 due to unavoidable circumstances and issues with no claims whatsoever from either of the parties against each other.

The grounds of arrest presented by the NAB in the court alleged that during March 2013 accused Fawad Hassan, the then Secretary (Implementation) to Chief Minister of Punjab, by misuse of his official position and authority, with malafide intentions and ulterior motives, and by unlawfully assuming the powers of the PLDC board, passed unlawful direction and exerted undue pressure on the than CEO Tahir Khurshid and Project Director Syed Ali Muoazzam to cancel the legitimate contract awarded to Latif Sons. The NAB further alleged that Fawad Hassan put undue pressure on CEO to cancel the contract. It was established that not a penny of loss was incurred to the government in this venture. However, the prosecution asserted that Rs15 billion was the ‘opportunity loss’ of the government as the project could not be completed.