Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif addresses the inauguration ceremony of Jinnah Medical Complex in Islamabad on July 21, 2024. PHOTO: APP
LAHORE:
An anti-graft court on Thursday granted interim pre-arrest bail to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s daughter Rabia Imran and her husband Ali Imran Yousaf in a case related to alleged irregularities in the Punjab Saaf Pani Company reference.
Both accused appeared before the court, which approved their bail petitions and ordered the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) to submit its response by May 6.
The couple had previously been declared violators due to their absence from the country. However, they later went to court, which suspended their arrest warrants last week and allowed them to surrender to the law.
The case was later transferred to the anti-corruption court after the accountability court lost jurisdiction following amendments to the National Accountability Ordinance.
Read more: £190m case: Imran’s lawyer asks IHC to summon IG prisons and hospital authorities with record
According to the accusations, the couple obtained illegal financial benefits by renting their private building to the company for use as office space.
Other suspects in the case, including Chief Minister Shehbaz and several senior bureaucrats, have already been acquitted.
The Saaf Pani case came to light in November 2017, when NAB launched a comprehensive investigation into alleged corruption in 56 public sector companies, including Punjab Saaf Pani Company.
The investigation highlighted allegations of irregularities, violations of procurement rules, nepotism and delays in project completion.
The chief minister’s daughter and son-in-law were also recently granted interim bail in another case on Tuesday in a reference related to alleged corruption in Punjab Power Development Company (PPDC).
Background
The Saaf Pani scam emerged after the NAB launched an investigation in November 2017 into alleged corruption in the 56 public sector companies, including PSPC, formed by the administration in Punjab headed by then PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif.
The NAB launched an “investigation” against the management, officers and officials of the PSPC and others. This investigation was converted into an investigation on August 20, 2018. During investigations, as alleged by NAB, it emerged that a contract had been awarded to KSB Pumps for installation of 82 water filtration plants at exorbitant prices and without proper approval of engineering estimates/technical sanction.
The illegal expansion of 36 additional filtration plants was also approved, in which the scope of the project had already been modified. Civil, electrical and solar works were also executed at exorbitant rates during the installation of these water filtration plants in the Bahawalpur region, the NAB had alleged.
NAB Lahore first arrested four people – Technical Director Dr Zaheerud Din, Procurement Director Nasir Qadir Badhal, Consulting Engineer M Saleem Akhtar and KSB Pumps Managing Director Masud Akhter on April 17, 2018.
Also read: Lahore court grants interim bail to PM’s daughter and son-in-law till May 7 in corruption case
They were followed by the arrest of Housing Undersecretary Khalid Nadeem Bukhari on May 2. The NAB alleged that the accused revealed the involvement of other co-accused, Raja Qamarul Islam and former CEO Wasim Ajmal, who was also arrested on June 25, 2018.
NAB subsequently arrested five more accused during the last week of November 2018. Among them were former deputy secretary Zahoor Ahmed Dogar, former chief resident engineer Adnan Aftab Khan, resident engineer Masoodul Hassan, resident engineer Moeenud Din and resident engineer Muhammad Younas.
According to the reference, the accused prepared cost estimates at much higher prices, adding that the award of the contract caused a cumulative loss of Rs 345.282 million to the national fund.
