Lahore, Feb 7 (IANS) Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif will be indicted in the multi-billion Ashiana Housing Scheme case on February 18, the media reported.
Pakistan anti-corruption body, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), had arrested the leader of the opposition on October 5 in connection with the case.
The watchdog had said that Sharif was involved in corruption in the Ashiana Iqbal Housing Scheme case during his tenure as Punjab province’s Chief Minister from 2013 to May 2018.
It said that he had “misused his powers” and granted contracts to unqualified companies of his friends, causing “losses of millions of rupees to the national exchequer”.
However, Shehbaz Sharif has denied the allegations as “false and baseless”.
Lahore Development Authority’s former Director General Ahad Cheema and senior bureaucrat Fawad Hassan Fawad were also taken into custody by NAB last year in connection with the scam.
During Thursday’s proceedings of the case in the accountability court, Cheema and Fawad were present but Sharif was not in attendance, Geo News reported. The latter’s lawyer told the court that his client was not well.
Adjourning the hearing of the case was till February 18, the court ordered Sharif to be present at all cost during the next hearing, adding that an order beyond summons would be given if he failed to appear.
–IANS
soni/ab