LAHORE: An accountability court in Lahore sent former premier Nawaz Sharif’s close aide Fawad Hassan Fawad on a physical remand to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Friday.
Fawad, who also served as secretary to former prime ministers Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Nawaz Sharif was regarded as the most powerful bureaucrat during Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)’s previous tenure.
The former secretary had been summoned by the National Accountability Bureau Lahore (NAB) at least 11 times but he appeared only thrice.
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He was arrested on Thursday by NAB authorities when he appeared before its investigation team at Lahore’s Thokar Niaz Beg complex and could not give ‘satisfactory answers’ to the questions posed by the investigators in Ashiana-e-Iqbal and other relevant cases.
Describing the grounds of his arrest, a NAB investigator said Fawad while serving as implementation secretary to former Punjab CM in Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Project, had misused his authority.
Talking to The Express Tribune, he said the accused person issued illegal orders to the Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC) Chief Executive Tahir Khursheed to suspend after eight months a contract ‘legally’ awarded to Chuadhry Latif and Sons.
An inquiry under the supervision of Finance Secretary Tariq Bajwa was conducted to investigate nature of the award of contract to Chaudhry Latif and Sons and the inquiry had declared it legal and in spirit of Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules.
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He said Fawad kept the inquiry report secret from the concerned authorities. He said Chaudhry Latif and Sons had not only paid Rs70 million as mobilisation advance but the work on the project had also been initiated.
“The government had to pay Rs5.9 million due to this illegal suspension of the contract,” he said, adding that the illegal steps by the accused had not only caused inordinate delay in the initiation of project but also resulted in increase in the cost of the project by billions of rupees.
“NAB had repeatedly summoned the accused person but he only appeared for three times,” he added.
The Lahore Development Authority (LDA) former chief Ahad Khan Cheema is already under custody in connection with the housing project scandal the probe into which extends to Punjab former chief minister and the PML-N current chief Shehbaz Sharif.
Original news : https://tribune.com.pk/story/1751284/1-fawad-hassan-fawad-sent-14-day-physical-remand/