12-day remand of BoP scam accused granted

LAHORE - An accountability court on Thursday granted 12 days physical remand of two main accused involved in Bank of Punjab Rs 9 billion scam, to National Accountability Bureau (NAB). The court also directed the NAB officials to produce them again in court along with other two arrested accused on December 01. A special team of NAB with the help of Interpol arrested Haris Steel Mill owner Sheikh M Afzal and his son Sheikh Haris from Malaysia on Monday. The bureau officials on last Wednesday also took into custody the wife and son of accused Sheikh Afzal when they landed at the Allama Iqbal International Airport here on their return from Dubai. The NAB presented them before an accountability court and obtained their 10-days remand. Both the arrested accused Sheikh M Afzal and his son Haris were brought to Lahore on last Wednesday. On Thursday, the NAB officials produced the accused Sheik Afzal and Haris before the court. The NAB officials pleaded in court that they required the accuseds fifteen days physical remand, as they wanted to recover a huge amount of fraud money from them. The counsel for the accused contended that they should not be sent on physical remand because the NAB officials had already seized their properties and bank accounts so they should be sent on judicial remand. The court after hearing the arguments from both sides granted twelve days physical remand for them and directed the NAB officials to produce them again in court on December 1. The judge remarked that court had also given relief to them earlier but they misused the concession and fled away from the country.

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