Shahbaz, Fawad: SC to resume hearing of NAB appeals on Tuesday

The Supreme Court will resume on Tuesday the hearing of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) appeals against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz President Shahbaz Sharif and Secretary (Implementation) to ex-CM Fawad Hassan Fawad in the Ashiana Iqbal and Ramzan Sugar Mills cases.

A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Asif Saeed Khan Khosa will take up the NAB appeals against the Lahore High Court judgment wherein it allowed post-arrest bail to them.

In the last hearing held in May this year, the counsel for ex-CM Punjab Shahbaz Sharif, and Fawad Hassan had sought time to file replies on the NAB appeals, and the additional documents, including Power of Attorney in the Ashiana Iqbal Housing project.

The NAB has filed the appeals under Article 185 of Constitution against the Lahore High Court (LHC) order dated 14-02-2019 in the Ashiana Iqbal and Ramzan Sugar Mills cases in the apex court.

It prayed that LHC order to be set aside and the post-arrest bail allowed to Shahbaz Sharif in the Ashiana Iqbal Housing Scheme and Ramzan Sugar Mills cases, and Fawad Hassan Fawad, the then Secretary (Implementation) to CM Punjab, in the Ashiana Housing.

It submitted that Division Bench LHC while granting bail to Shahbaz Sharif and Fawad Hassan Fawad 'erred', therefore the same is liable to be set aside.

The division bench 'erred' to appreciate that the provision under Section 9(a) read with Section 14(c) of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, entails that an objective appreciation of the prosecution evidence had to be evaluated and the prosecution succeeded in establishing culpability upon Shahbaz Sharif and extraordinary circumstances did not exist for granting bail to the ex-CM.

It contended that Shahbaz Sharif entrusted the project to LDA in order to award the contract of the Ashiana Iqbal project to M/s Paragon Housing City (Pvt) Limited with active connivance of his close aid accused Ahad Khan Cheema, the then DG LDA.

The NAB contended that Shahbaz Sharif time and again 'usurped' the powers of PLDC Board to ensure that the project is executed as per his desires and the contract is awarded to his favourite bidder. In December 2013 PLDC had initiated the bidding process for infrastructure development of the Ashiana Iqbal project.

The NAB claimed that Fawad received 'illegal' pecuniary benefit of Rs55 million from accused Kamran Kayani, the Owner of M/s Conpro Service (Pvt) Ltd. The Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC) had awarded the contract to the lowest bidder i.e. Chaudhry A Latif and Sons.