ISLAMABAD  - National Accountability Bureau (NAB) would manage the arrest of former premier Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani through police, well-placed sources told The Nation on Wednesday.
According to details, the combined investigation team (CIT) of the NAB Tuesday issued a notice to former Prime Minister Gilani to appear before the team on Wednesday but he did not join the investigation, sources added. The sources informed that NAB had summoned Gilani on December 11 to appear before its investigation team to face probe into illegal appointment of Khawaja Adnan (former Managing Director of OGDCL). Interestingly, Adnan Khawaja is known for being the jail buddy of Gilani, and Ahmed Riaz Sheikh, a former additional DG FIA, was considered a lynchpin in Zardari's inner circle. Furthermore, both Khawaja and Sheikh are NRO beneficiaries.
A NAB official, who was aware of the developments, informed that the former PM had been summoned after the Supreme Court grilled the bureau for not filing a reference against him, ignoring the facts that he had given the approval of these two illegal appointment and promotion cases respectively during his tenure as PM, the sources said.
According to sources this was a face-saving arrangement by the bureau to satisfy the superior judiciary and at any cost NAB would not take action against Gilani.
Yousaf Raza Gilani during his tenure as PM had appointed Adnan Khawaja as managing director of Oil & Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) ignoring the fact that Khawaja was convicted by a NAB court in a corruption case. Khawaja held a matriculation certificate only when he was appointed as MD.
Similarly, Gilani had given approval for the promotion from Grade-20 to Grade-21 of an FIA officer Ahmed Riaz Sheikh who was also an NRO beneficiary at that time, the sources added.
Earlier, NAB had sent a questionnaire to Gilani in connection with illegal appointment of Adnan Khawaja but he refused to reply. After the apex court disqualified Gilani from premiership, he responded to that questionnaire and testified he did not know Khawaja and approved the routine summary of his appointment, the sources said.