Nawaz Sharif's principal secy, his family indicted in assets beyond means case

Accused pleaded not guilty; witnesses summoned for statements at next hearing

ISLAMABAD:

An Accountability Court (AC) indicted on Monday former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's Principal Secretary Fawad Hassan Fawad and his family members in the assets beyond means case.

AC Judge Muhamad Akmal Khan presided over the hearing of the case against Fawad and his family members, wherein the court rejected the bail pleas of the accused.

Those indicted besides Fawad were Rabab Hassan, Waqar Hassan and Anjum Hassan. All of them pleaded not guilty. The court has summoned witnesses for statements against the accused at the next hearing.

In January, the Lahore High Court (LHC) granted bail to Fawad in the said case, and directed him to submit surety bonds worth Rs10 million to avail the bail.

An LHC division bench – comprising Justice Muhammad Tariq Abbasi and Justice Chaudhry Mushtaq Ahmad – heard the post-arrest bail petition filed by Fawad.

As the proceedings resumed, Fawad's counsel argued that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested his client in 2018, but he was still to be indicted in the case.

He submitted that it was claimed at the time of the arrest that Fawad owned assets of billions of rupees, but assets worth Rs108 million only were mentioned in the NAB reference.

Earlier, it was alleged that the petitioner possessed many properties, but details of the properties were not made part of the reference, he added.

He submitted that the bail plea was dismissed earlier by an LHC bench as the matter was under investigation, but then a reference was filed.

“All allegations against my client have proved baseless,” he contended, pleading the court to grant bail to the petitioner.

However, the NAB prosecutor opposed the plea, saying that the accused owned benami properties, which were in the name of his relatives.

Justice Abbasi asked why the bureau did not arrest the three benami co-accused in the case. It was alleged that at the time of arrest, Fawad had 14 bank accounts, why were those accounts not made part of the reference, he further questioned.