LAHORE: An accountability court ordered to close inquiries against Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi on the request of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
Judge Sajjad Sheikh took up the references and approved NAB’s request to close the 20-year-old inquiries for want of evidence.
As per details, there were three inquiries against the Chaudhry brothers. The first one was into allegations of acquiring illegal assets.
The second inquiry was against Elahi, accusing him of making illegal appointments in local government departments. The third inquiry on charges of loan default against the duo had already been closed with the approval of the trial court.
According to NAB-Lahore Director General Shahzad Saleem, the investigating officer recommended that the inquiries against Hussain and Elahi may be closed as no trial-worthy material or evidence surfaced during the course of the investigation.
The NAB chairman had already suggested the closure of the inquiries in the light of the reports submitted by the investigating officer. The duty judge summoned the investigating officer in illegal appointments reference against Elahi on May 6.
The Chaudhry brothers had challenged the inquiries against them before the LHC, alleging that NAB had been used for political engineering.
the court had expressed concern over the pendency of the inquiries for 20 years and ordered NAB to conclude the same within four weeks in December last year.
The Chaudhry brothers had requested that all the inquiries against them had been recommended for closure by the investigating officers and the regional board of NAB during 2017 and 2018. However, the PML-Q leaders said the sitting chairman of NAB, retired justice Javed Iqbal, had approved reinvestigation and bifurcation of the inquiries against them after a period of 20 years.
