ISLAMABAD: Country’s anti-corruption watchdog, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has decided to move Supreme Court (SC) against the decision of Lahore High Court (LHC) that granted bail to former top bureaucrat Fawad Hasan Fawad.
The principal secretary to former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Fawad has been facing the charges of accumulating assets beyond means and corruption in Ashiana Housing Scheme, a housing sector scam.
He was arrested by NAB before Imran Khan led Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) took power in 2018. The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday (Jan 21) granted bail to Fawad with directions to submit surety bonds worth Rs10 million to avail the bail.
LHC division bench included Justice Muhammad Tariq Abbasi and Justice Chaudhary Mushtaq Ahmad.
Read:Fawad Hasan Fawad gets bails in illegal assets case
The anti-corruption watchdog has been facing criticism from opposition parties for being biased and being used for arm twisting of political opponents. After many politicians either secured bail or exonerated, many people in the country believe NAB’s investigation and prosecution processes in high profile cases have remained unsatisfactory and the cases could not stand in the courts of law.
A senior official of NAB Headquarter told ‘The News Today’ immediately after the decision of Lahore High Court in favour of former bureaucrat came, an emergency meeting was held in NAB secretariat to formulate new strategy on the case.
“The NAB high-ups after consultation, lightening all important aspects of case and taking their chairman Justice ® Javaid Iqbal into confidence, have decided to challenge LHC decision of granting bail to former bureaucrat into the Apex Court of the country”, official added.
According to the NAB, the accused during investigation failed to share the means for having assets worth of amounting Rs. 1.09 billion. The anti-corruption watchdog also accuses Fawad to have purchased properties and assets worth billions of rupees in the name of his wife, brother and other close relatives.
According to the NAB investigation, Fawad in year 2013 had acquired a commercial plot of size 8 Kanal, having worth of Rs. 1.17 billion at prime location of GPO Square in Rawalpindi city bordering federal capital. Later on, a commercial multi-stories building was also constructed on the said property with an estimated expenditures of Rs. 4.56 billion.
NAB in its investigation report claimed that for construction of commercial property, Fawad paid interest of Rs. 500-600 million against Bank loans. On the other hand the record of tax department revealed that total documented income of Fawad’s family during fiscal year 2010-2017 Rs. 25 million only.
NAB investigation further disclosed the accused established a company named FYC in year 2006 in the name of his close relatives including wife, brother and brother’s wife and later on this company was used to secure bank loans for construction of commercial property in Rawalpindi city.
NAB charged him of misuse of powers and influencing the commercial banks for granting loans of amounting hundreds of millions.
“Furthermore, the culprit and his companions (family members) in year 2013 established a proxy company named Sprint Services Rawalpindi Limited (SSRL) to convert the black money into white, involving in money laundering and layering with unlawful banking transactions of millions of rupees into the company account”, NAB investigation further claimed.
The watchdog agency asserted that besides keeping the company’s luxury vehicles including BMW, Audi and Honda Civic in his personal use, Fawad also enjoyed the bank loan of Rs. 50 million using the documents of said proxy company; the amount of loan was drawn in the name of his wife.
The investigation report further said his wife was receiving Rs. 500,000 per month from company’s bank account in the name of salary. She also drew Rs. 15 million for personal expenses.
NAB plans to highlight such major points before Apex Court of the Country in its attempt to put Fawad behind bars once again.
