ISLAMABAD - The PPP workers Wednesday clashed with the security personnel deployed around the NAB Rawalpindi office, where Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari were questioned for around two hours in three corruption cases.
The cases included a high-profile scam involving money laundering through fake bank accounts and the illegal transfer of forest land to Park Lane Estate Company (pvt) Ltd – the father and son duo owns.
The National Accountability Bureau investigation team also recorded the statements of PPP Chairman Bilawal and Co-Chairman Zardari and gave them questionnaires, which they are required to reply in ten days.
The top PPP leaders arrived at the NAB headquarters old building separately while Zardari’s daughter Asifa Bhutto Zardari also reached there.
Their entry to the building was delayed as charged workers and leaders, who had been asked by the party leadership to reach the venue to ‘express solidarity’, surrounded the vehicles of Zardari and Bilawal.
Additional security personnel were summoned to disperse the unruly protesters and move the father and the son duo into the NAB office.
The enraged activists breached security and headed to the NAB office by removing blockades on the way, sparking clashes between them and the police.
More violence came outside the NAN building when the enraged workers tried to enter it and security personnel checked their advance.
As for the investigation, the combined investigation team was headed by NAB Rawalpindi Director General Irfan Naeem Mangi. It included four investigators – Mohsin Ali Khan, Mehboob Alam, Gul Afridi, Younis Khan – and two prosecutors – Irfan Bhola and Wasiq Hussain.
At a press conference after the investigation session, Bilawal claimed that he was only one year old when M/s Park Lane was formed but the investigators told him he was made 25 percent share holder of the company in 2009 when he had assumed the PPP chairmanship.
NAB sources said both Bilwal and Zardari did not reply most of the questions of the investigators by terming them irrelevant.
A statement issued by NAB said the investigation team will decide to summon them again after reviewing their recoded statements and replies of questionnaires.
It further said the cases were being investigated under the supervision of NAB Chairman Justice (r) Javed Iqbal. It maintained that NAB strongly believes in completion of investigations as per law and was committed to eradicating corruption without succumbing to any pressure.
Last week, NAB Rawalpindi had issued the summons of Bilawal and Asif Zardari with the direction to appear before the NAB CIT on March 20 for recording their statements in the corruption cases.
In January, the Supreme Court had sent the fake bank accounts case to NAB for investigation. On the directions of the top court, a joint investigation team that probed the alleged money laundering network, had handed over the record of the case to NAB.
The apex court had also ordered the government to remove the names of Bilawal and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah from the Exit Control List (ECL).
Violence: How it happened
The Bureau had requested Islamabad Police and chief commissioner to ensure security on the occasion of the appearance Bilawal and Zardari.
Prior to their arrival at NAB office, the roads leading to the facility were blocked and PPP workers were stopped at Nadra Chowk.
The charged workers pelted the police personnel with stones when the latter tried to stop their advance at the Nadra Chowk. As a result, at least 9 officials were injured.
The injured cops were named ASI Muhammad Anwar, Constable Shahid Imran, Constable Muhammad Tariq, Constable Muhammad Atif, Constable Haroon Haider, Umer Farooq, Constable Muhammad Bilal,
Constable Samar Saleem and Constable Tanzeel Hussain.
Chanting slogans against the government and in favour of their leadership, the PPP activists kept pushing ahead, removed the blockades and reached the NAB office.
More clashes came when the protesters attempted to get through the police barricade and enter the NAB premises through the main gate.
An official was injured outside office when a woman hurled a stone at him. The violent political workers also thrashed media persons who were there to perform their duties.
The police baton-charged the PPP workers and also detained over 100 of them. Farhatullah Babar, Nayyar Hussain Bukhari, Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar and other PPP leaders were present on the occasion.
The detainees were stuffed into prison vans and shifted to different police stations, though no case was registered against them until late night, according to police sources.
PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira said over 200 jiyalas have been detained while 50 were missing. He urged the administration to release the detainees.
Nafisa Shah lamented that the grandson of a leader who gave the country its nuclear programme was being dragged to the accountability watchdog’s door.
Later, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said the NAB was created for political engineering and that it was his party’s fault that it did not change NAB’s ‘black law’ during its tenure in government.
“The case for which I have been summoned, I became a shareholder of that company [according to NAB] when I was not even one year old. These people started my accountability from that age,” he said while addressing the party workers following his appearance.