ISLAMABAD - The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has sought from the Punjab Excise and Taxation Department details of sale and purchase of vehicles in the name of 22 members of former prime minister Imran Khan’s cabinet as part of its investigation in the Al Qadir Trust case involving £190 million corruption amount. Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi are facing charges of obtaining billions of rupees and land worth hundreds of kanals from Bahria Town Ltd for legalising Rs50 billion amount that was identified and returned to the country by the UK during the previous PTI government.
In connection with the case, NAB issued a letter to the provincial excise department, stating that the bureau’s Rawalpindi office was conducting an investigation against the subject of persons on the allegations of corruption and corrupt practices under the provisions of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999.
In a letter written by the NAB to the Punjab Excise and Taxation Department, it has been urged to provide by June 20, 2023 the details of certified documents of any vehicles’ sale/purchase during the period of January 2018 till date in the name of the 22 cabinet members of Imran Khan’s government.
The minister included Asad Umar, Shireen Mazari, Pervez Khattak, Fawad Chaudhry, Hammad Azhar, Azam Khan Swati, Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, Zaheeruddin Babar Awan, Omar Ayub Khan, Shafqat Mahmood, Faisal Vawda, Murad Saeed, Ali Amin Khan Gandapur, Syed Ali Haider Zaidi, Khusro Bakhtiar, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Zubaida Jalal, Ijaz Ahmad Shah, Muhammad Farogh Naseem, Muhammad Soomro, Sahibzada Muhammad Mehboob Sultan, spokesperson Kashif Zaman.
The Al Qadir Trust case shot into the spotlight when PTI chief Imran Khan was whisked away from the Islamabad High Court premises by paramilitary forces in the graft case on May 9.
The PTI chief had immediately approached the IHC for his release, but the high court had declared his arrest legal.
He had then approached the Supreme Court, which on May 11, termed his arrest invalid and unlawful and directed him to appear before the IHC the next day.
Subsequently, the IHC had granted him bail in the case for two weeks and later, an Islamabad accountability court had granted the former premier bail till June 19 against surety bonds worth Rs500,000. NAB has also summoned Bushra Bibi for investigation in the Al Qadir Trust case on June 7.