Shehbaz Sharif, other accused indicted in Ashiyana housing scam

LAHORE (92 News) – Accountability Court Judge Najamul Hassan Bukhari indicted Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif and other accused in the Ashiyana Housing scam on Monday. However, the accused, including Shehbaz Sharif, Fawad Hassan Fawad, Ahad Cheema, Shahid Shafiq, Bilal Qadwai and Imtiaz Haider, denied the charges. Shehbaz Sharif said: “I make an oath before Allah Almighty that the case against us is false.” The court ordered to give the copies of the statements to the accused. Shehbaz Sharif’s counsels exchanged hot words with the NAB prosecutor. The court reprimanded the Shehbaz Sharif’s counsels over the issue. Earlier on February 14, the Lahore High Court (LHC) had granted bail to Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif in the Ashiyana Housing Scheme. The two-member bench headed by Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmed announced the verdict that was reserved earlier. The court rejected the bail plea of Fawad Hassan Fawad in assets beyond known sources of income case. However, he was granted bail in the Ashiyana Housing scandal. The court had remarked that Shehbaz Sharif was not the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Ramazan Sugar Mills. Shehbaz Sharif, in the Ashiyana-e-Iqbal housing scam, is accused of cancelling the award of the project to successful bidder M/s Chaudhry Latif and Sons and instead obliging M/s Lahore Casa Developers (JV) — a proxy group of M/s Paragon City (Pvt) Limited, which the bureau claims was developed by former railways minister Khawaja Saad Rafique.