LAHORE - An accountability court on Friday granted 14-day physical remand of five more accused to the National Accountability Bureau on in the Punjab Youth Festival scam case.
The NAB officials produced the accused before Special Judge Accountability Court Ameer Muhammad Khan who conducted the proceedings.
The NAB official said that the accused including Ahsan ul Haq, Muhammad Imran, Tayyab Waseem, Muhammad Asif and Khalid Mehmood were arrested on pointation of former director general Punjab Sports Board Usman Anwar, who was already in the custody of the bureau on physical remand.
The prosecutor pleaded that the accused including sports board officials and the contractors- caused loss to the national exchequer through illegal tenders awarded in violation of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority rules. He submitted that physical remand of the accused be granted to the NAB for investigation.
Meanwhile, the accused denied the allegations levelled against them by the bureau.
After hearing both the parties, the court remanded the accused in the NAB custody for 14-days. The bureau had already arrested Usman Anwar allegedly for embezzling huge funds of the Punjab Youth Festival.
Hafiz Saeed challenges
terror finance cases
Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed on Friday moved the Lahore High Court against the terror financing cases filed against him as the Punjab Counterterrorism Department (CTD) had filed 23 cases against the JuD chief and 12 others a month ago.
Hafiz Saeed and other petitioners have cited the federal government, Punjab government and the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) as respondents. The other petitions include Amir Hamza, Abdur Rehman Makki and, M Yahya Aziz.
The petitioners submitted that the First Information Report (FIR) registered against him be declared null and void. The petition says that Hafiz Saeed has nothing to do with banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Al-Qaeda or any other such outfits.
The petitioners stated the accused are not involved in any activities against the state. Accusations by the Indian lobby naming Saeed as the mastermind behind Mumbai attacks are baseless and against the facts.
The CTD had filed cases under the Anti-Terrorism Act in Lahore, Gujranwala and Multan against the leaders of banned organizations such as JuD, LeT and Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) allegedly for using five trusts to “funnel funds to terror suspects”. The CTD had registered 23 cases against the JuD chief and 12 others after pressure from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The FATF had placed Pakistan on its “grey list” of countries with inadequate controls over money laundering and terrorism financing, last year. It had given the country October deadline to improve its efforts against terror financing.
