ISLAMABAD: Speaker of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Asad Qaisar Saturday rebutted corruption allegations against him and asked for proof of his alleged properties.
According to sources, a NAB director, in his letter written to the NAB chief, stated that Qaisar shared a 14-marla house with his four brothers, but now he owns a five-kanal bungalow worth Rs50 million, it emerged on Friday.
The letter read that the KP Assembly speaker has had a house worth Rs350 million built on 35 kanals of land in Bani Gala.
“I will gift the bungalow to the person who points to me its exact location,” Qaisar remarked sarcastically at a news conference in Islamabad.
The provincial assembly speaker said that he has declared his assets to the election commission as well as in his tax returns. He also claimed to have paid Rs1.1 million tax this year.
Qaisar said that appointments on senior assembly positions were made through National Testing Service (NTS) after placing advertisements. Hiring in Class-4 was done as per quota as laid down in the law, he added.
Condemning what he called “propaganda”, the speaker said he was being subjected to character assassination.
He said that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has not yet contacted him over the allegations.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister KP Pervez Khattak came out in support of the speaker and said that party chairman Imran Khan has full confidence in him.
The NAB official in his letter had said that there have been allegations against Asad Qaisar of receiving 30 per cent kickbacks in different development projects, and that there is a clear difference between the speaker's assets and his sources of income.
The letter further read that Qaisar is also accused of illegally appointing 55 individuals on various provincial assembly jobs and influencing academic results of schools, sources added.
In his response, Speaker Asad Qaisar had said that he purchased land in Bani Gala in 2012, before his party came into power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. "All formalities were fulfilled regarding the appointments."