Chairman NAB signed on Khawaja Asif’s arrest warrants and that he has been shifted to the anti-graft watchdog’s Rawalpindi office, sources informed The Pakistan Daily.
Sources further informed that NAB arrested Khawaja Asif in a case that Special Adviser to the Prime Minister on Youth Affairs Usman Dar had filed against him.
Khawaja Asif failed to declare the source of Rs220 million he received from Dubai, the sources said.
In a press statement, NAB states that Khawaja Asif’s assets worth went from Rs. 51 lacs in 1991 to Rs 221 million in 2018.
The statement also claims that the PMLN leader could not provide evidence of money earned from his employment in the UAE.
Asif is among the main leaders of the former ruling party – including the PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, Hamza Shehbaz, Rana Sanaullah, Javed Latif and Saad Rafique – who are facing NAB inquiries, investigations and references.
Mohtarma Maryam Nawaz held a press conference shortly after Asif’s arrest, calling it an “abduction”.
Asif’s arrest goes on to show how anxious the government has become as it reckoned the power of PDM, said Maryam Nawaz.
Someone called Khawaja Asif and told him to leave Nawaz Sharif, Maryam said.
“That person said that if Khawaja Asif did not leave Nawaz Sharif then he will have to face the consequences. If he did, the cases against him will finish in 20 days.”
Even the courts have often acknowledged and admitted that NAB has become a tool of political engineering in Pakistan, she said, and claimed that Prime Minister Imran Khan is using the accountability bureau for political vengeance.
“Khawaja Asif’s arrest in asset beyond means is a joke and shows desperation of the government,” former PM Nawaz Sharif said while talking to media outside Stanhope House.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also condemns Khawaja Asifs arrest. “This kind of vendetta based politics is against democracy,” Bilawal said.
