An accountability court on Thursday indicted former federal minister Dr Arbab Alamgir and his wife Asma Alamgir, a former MNA, in a reference accusing them of possessing assets disproportionate to their known sources of income. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has alleged that both the suspects accumulated assets to the tune of Rs 332 million, which were disproportioned to their known sources of income.
The couple, belonging to Pakistan People's Party, have repeatedly claimed innocence and stated that all their assets were acquired through known sources. While rejecting the charges against them, Asma said their assets have been in the family for the past 200 years.
"We even disclosed the properties that were not in our name," said Arbab, while his wife claimed that "NAB has turned into a joke of an institution". While criticising NAB, Asma said, "The LDA reference against the Punjab Assembly speaker has been shut while we have been indicted in court. Why does the law that applied to Pervez Elahi speaker not apply to anyone else?"
"When I - being a woman - can come to the court myself, why can't those hiding under the umbrella of the law like Pervez Khattak and Mehmood Khan do the same?"
The court summoned four witnesses on January 24 to commence the trial. Asma Alamgir questioned the credibility of National Accountability Bureau, saying an unfounded case has been taken as a reference against her while LDA plot allotment case of Speaker Punjab Assembly has been dismissed.
She said that we are being targeted for our dedication and services to people through baseless 'Reference'. He questioned the disparity of treatment by law for him and for Speaker Punjab Assembly and Pervez Khattak.
Asma said that NAB should first make corrections in its record and file a reference after proper investigation besides following prescribed procedure adding relevant courts would be moved as reference against her does not fulfill the required criteria.
She said that NAB should stop following dual standards and follow rules and regulation in its operations. She said that each and every citizen would be treated equally by NAB irrespective of its affiliations.