LAHORE, Oct 05 (APP):The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Friday arrested Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif in the Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Scheme scam.
According to a NAB spokesperson, Shehbaz Sharif was arrested after he appeared before a combined investigation
team in the Saaf Pani corruption case at the accountability watchdog’s Lahore office. He would be produced before an
accountability court on Saturday for obtaining his physical remand, he added.
Shehbaz was allegedly involved in corruption of Rs 14 billion Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Scheme and Rs 4 billion
Punjab Saaf Pani Company scams. He had previously appeared before NAB on a couple of occasions in both the cases and recorded his statement.
Senior bureaucrat Fawad Hassan Fawad and Lahore Development Authority (LDA) former director general Ahad Cheema have already been arrested in connection with the housing scam.
The contract for the housing scheme was won by the construction company Chaudhry Latif and Sons, which was cancelled by the former Punjab chief minister and his aides, and awarded to Lahore Casa Developers, which was ineligible for the purpose.
NAB launched an investigation into the scam in November after receiving a number of complaints in this regard.
Due to alleged illegal cancellation of the contract, the provincial government had to pay Rs 5.9 million in damages to the
contractor. The cancellation of the contract also delayed the project, resulting in cost escalation in billions of rupees.
