Shehbaz Sharif, Fawad Hassan Fawad, Ahad Cheema, others get clean chit in Ashiana Housing reference
LAHORE, Nov 18 (SABAH): In a significant development, an accountability court on Saturday acquitted former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, Advisor to Caretaker Prime Minister, Ahad Khan Cheema, Caretaker Minister for Privatization Fawad Hassan Fawad and all other accused in Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme reference.
Accountability court heard the pleas filed by 13 accused including Shehbaz Sharif in Ashiana Housing reference. The attorney general and the NAB submitted their reports in court.
The NAB prosecutor said the Supreme Court of Pakistan verdict did not have any effect on the case. Upon this, the court remarked it would announce decision in two hours.
Later, the court announced its verdict accepting appeals of all accused including Fawad Hassan Fawad, Bilal Qudwai, Imtiaz Haider, Shahid Mahmood, Munir Zia, Ali Sajid, Chaudhry Muhammad Siddiqui and Shahid Shafique who had sought their exoneration in the case. The court, while announcing its decision, acquitted all the accused. One accused Khalid Hussain did not file the acquittal plea.
The NAB, in 2018, had filed (18/50) Ashiana Iqbal reference worth Rs660 million. Accused Nadeem Zia and Kamran Kayani had already been discharged in the case.
On November 2, Judge Malik Ali Zulqarnain Awan of the accountability court reserved the verdict after concluding the final arguments presented by the counsels and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutors on acquittal pleas.
The acquittal applications argued that all prosecution witnesses and the approvers had withdrawn their statements, indicating no possibility of conviction in the reference. The applicants urged the court to approve the applications and clear them of the charges.
In a report filed in May, the NAB informed the court that it had found no evidence of financial corruption or misuse of authority by Shehbaz Sharif.
The report stated that the allegations of misuse of authority and corruption against the former prime minister were not substantiated under the National Accountability Ordinance of 1999.
NAB had filed the reference in 2018, alleging that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president and other accused had caused a massive financial loss to the national kitty by awarding the contract to a construction firm without a competitive bidding process.
Shehbaz Sharif was arrested on Oct 5, 2018, in connection with the case when he appeared before the accountability bureau in another matter while Cheema was taken into custody on February 21 of the same year. Both of them were later released on bail.
Earlier, Kamran Kiyani, the brother of former army chief Ashfaque Parvez Kiyani, and Nadeem Zia of Paragon City were acquitted by the court due to a “lack of evidence”.
The NAB alleged that Cheema received illegal benefits from the owners of Paragon City Developers as a reward for awarding the housing scheme contract to their proxy firm, Bismillah Engineering.