LAHORE: An accountability court on Tuesday allowed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to close last inquiry of illegal appointments against Punjab Assembly Speaker Pervez Elahi.

The NAB had filed a reference seeking a final approval of the trial court to close the inquiry against Elahi.

Earlier, the NAB special prosecutor told the court that many nominated suspects in the reference including the beneficiaries of alleged illegal appointments either died or retired. He said the available evidence was not enough to establish the charge of misuse of authority to make illegal appointments against Pervez Elahi.

After hearing arguments of the prosecutor, the duty Judge Sajjad Ahmad Sheikh allowed the reference and approved the closure of the inquiry against Pervez Elahi of making illegal appointments during his stint as local government minister during 1993.

On May 3, the court had also allowed two other references of the NAB and approved closure of two separate inquiries of assets beyond means against PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Pervez Elahi.

A third inquiry on charges of loan default against the duo had already been closed with the approval of the trial court.

The Chaudhry brothers had challenged these inquiries before the Lahore High Court alleging that the NAB had been used for political engineering. The court, during December last, had expressed concern over the pendency of the inquiries for 20 years and ordered the NAB to conclude the same within four weeks.

The PML-Q leaders had pleaded that all the inquiries against them had been recommended for closure by the investigating officers and the regional board of the NAB during 2017 and 2018. However, Chairman NAB Javed Iqbal approved reinvestigation and bifurcation of the inquiries against them after a period of 20 years.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021