LAHORE: An Accountability Court on Saturday extended interim pre-arrest bail of Kamran Kayani, a brother of former army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and Nadeem Zia, one of the owners of Paragon City, till October 29 in the Punjab Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme corruption reference.

In this reference, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has been granted permanent exemption from personal appearance in the proceedings. A pleader, however, attended the proceedings on behalf of the prime minister.

Earlier, the counsel for the prime minister and other accused persons requested the court to conclude the trial proceedings expeditiously. They said the majority of the prosecution witnesses had been cross-examined.

They said the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) should file a separate reference against the suspects Kayani and Zia who recently joined the investigation.

The NAB alleged that Shehbaz and other accused persons caused a huge loss to the national exchequer by awarding the contract of the housing scheme to a company without bidding.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022