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Wednesday April 24, 2024

Ex-NAB officer’s son says interned for Broadsheet-linked law firm

By Murtaza Ali Shah
January 28, 2021

LONDON: The son of former Prosecutor General of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Farouk Adam Khan has said that he worked with Broadsheet-linked Orchard Solicitors in London for work experience in 2000 but it was under a work internship scheme and didn’t receive monetary benefits from the law firm.

Omer Farouk Adam, a retired Pakistan Navy officer, told The News and Geo that he did an internship with Orchard Solicitors “but there was nothing secret about it and the internship was without monetary benefits”.

He said: “It was a regular limited period internship undertaken with many other law students.”

Omar Farouk said that General (retired) Syed Amjad’s insinuations in his 2015 affidavit about his father before the London High Court judge in the Broadsheet vs NAB case are “not only malicious but a sign of a weak man desperately trying to hide skeletons”.

Omer Farouk Adam spoke after The News and Geo made public the witness statement of General Amjad, the NAB Chairman under Pervez Musharraf, in which he alleged that Farouk Adam Khan went on to work for Broadsheet as a consultant after leaving the NAB job and “It came to my attention later on that his son was employed by Mr David Orchard who along with Dr Pepper were legal advisors to Trouvons”.

Omer Farouk Adam, who currently works as a lawyer in Pakistan and studied and worked in London, said there was nothing secretive or hidden about his work experience with David Orchard’s law firm in 2000.

He added: “The statement made by Farouk Adam Khan as to the sequence of events leading up to the signing of the Broadsheet Agreement (also called “Assets Recovery Agreement) was absolutely correct. May be Mr. Farouk Adam Khan, if alive, would now have changed his opinion about Mr. General Amjad.”

During their witness statement before the London Arbitration judge, General Amjad and Farouk Adam Kham, who were once close associates, clashed with each other over the events of 2000 onwards while NAB and Broadsheet were tied in the agreement till 2003.

Farouk Adam Khan, who later provided consultancy to Broadsheet, pinned the responsibility on General Amjad for signing the agreement and being “satisfied” after visiting the Broadsheet LLC office in Colorado USA in April 2000.

Farouk Adam also told the court that he had done all due diligence and obtained all approvals from the relevant ministries.