Shehbaz Sharif says Ashiana case was politically motivated

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Shairf in his statement before the accountability court said the Ashiana case was politically motivated.

Shehbaz Sharif appeared in an accountability court on Saturday, a day after being arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in connection with the Ashiana Housing Scheme case.

Sharif was placed in the custody of NAB on a ten-day physical remand. 

In his statement, Sharif said he had not committed corruption of even a single penny. “I worked day and night to serve the people,” Sharif said.

Sharif further said that he had saved billions by personally intervening, adding he had saved the province Rs75 billion in the Orange Line Train project.

Sharif has been accused by NAB of misusing his powers while being the chief minister of Punjab in an inquiry pertaining to Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC).

The inquiry conducted states that Shehbaz Sharif as the chief minister of Punjab had unlawfully assumed powers of Board of Directors of Punjab Land and Development Company (PLDC), misused his authority and acted in connivance with Fawad Hassan Fawad who at the time was Secretary Implementation to CM Punjab and others. Contracts awarded to M/s Ch. A Latif and sons for the development and infrastructure of Ashiana Iqbal Housing Project were illegally cancelled.

As the chief minister, Shehbaz Sharif in a meeting on October 21, 2014 unlawfully directed PLDC to entrust the project of Ashiana Iqbal Punjab to LDA. This decision of Sharif was illegal and mala fide as PLDC was the company which was established for undertaking such housing projects. Shehbaz is accused of illegally transferring this project to LDA, which was headed by his close aide Ahad Khan Cheema.

Shehbaz is also accused of working in connivance with other accused in the case and directed LDA to undertake Ashiana Iqbal Project under Public Private Partnership mode. NAB states this was done in order to give “unlawful benefit to blue-eyed firm namely M/s Bismillah Engineering Service Company, which was a proxy firm to M/s Paragon City.”