NAB gets back unanswered questionnaire sent to Fazl

ISLAMABAD: The questionnaire, sent by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, has finally received back to its regional office in Peshawar in strange circumstances, sources told The News here on Tuesday.

The sources said that the NAB had sent the questionnaire through a postal registry to the address of a house, located in Shorkot, instead of approaching the relevant police department to hand over the questionnaire to Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

“The staff members of relevant post office has informed the NAB Regional Office in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) that they paid a number of visits to the address, given in the registry, but the JUI-F chief was not available to receive this questionnaire,” the sources said.

The sources said that now the questionnaire had returned back to the NAB office after ten days, adding “Now the NAB will decide what to do with this questionnaire in few days.” It is pertinent to mention here that JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman always said that he had not received any questionnaire from NAB and this fact proved that it was not delivered to him due to some obvious reasons.

The NAB on December 18 sent a 26-point questionnaire to JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman in order to proceed with the investigation into corruption allegations against him. The bureau has directed the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) chief to submit the response by December 28.

The accountability watchdog also warned him for facing legal action if he failed to submit a response in the stipulated timeframe. As far as the media statements are concerned JUI-F’s leader Senator Atta-ur-Rehman, while commenting on a local news channel about reports of questionnaire sent to the JUI-F chief, said, “We will not take on NAB and instead we will turn our attention to those who are pulling the strings of this institution.”

He also claimed that NAB had no courage to arrest Maulana Fazlur Rehman because it rightly knew the power and political strength of his hardcore workers. When contacted, NAB’s Director Media Nawazish Ali Asim confirmed to The News that NAB had sent the questionnaire to JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and asked him to provide his reply with evidences till December 28.