News Desk |
Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry on Saturday has said that the case of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Aleem Khan is less serious.
In a tweet, Fawad said that those who looted billions of rupees are on bails but PTI leader is not getting it approved from the court. Aleem Khan is not accused of causing loss to the national exchequer, he added.
علیم خان کا مقدمہ کم سنگین ہے، اگر اربوں روپے کھانے والے ملزموں کو اتنی آسانی سے ضمانت مل سکتی ہے تو ایک کاروباری آدمی کو جس پر سرکاری خزانے کو نقصان پہنچانے کا کوئ الزام نہیں ضمانت دی جانی چاہئے۔عام تاثر یہ ہے کہ علیم کو اپوزیشن کے شور کی وجہ سے ناکردہ جرم کی سزا دی جا رہی ہے۔
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) April 13, 2019
On Feb 6th, the former Provincial minister was taken into custody by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officials in Lahore. As per a press release issued by NAB Lahore, Khan was arrested for owning assets beyond his known sources of income.
An accountability court on Tuesday, 5th March, sent Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Aleem Khan to jail on a 14-day judicial remand in a case pertaining to his offshore companies and the formerly alleged possession of assets beyond his known sources of income.
National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officials, who presented Khan before an accountability court judge as his physical remand had finished its tenure, asked for an extension of the PTI leader’s physical remand for further interrogation. The accused’s counsel, however, stood against the desired extension.
The court dismissed the corruption watchdog’s request for an extension of physical remand and instead sent the former provincial minister to jail.
Fawad Chaudhry’s comments came directly aimed at a court granting bail to various opposition leaders in the past few days. The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday, 10th April had suspended Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbasi’s life imprisonment sentence in ephedrine quota case and ordered his release. Abbasi was released on bail.
On June 22, 2018, a special Anti-Narcotics Court (ANC) had sentenced Abbasi to life in the ephedrine quota case. Hamza Shahbaz was unprecedentedly given protective bail on Saturday, April 6; Lahore High Court stopped NAB from arresting Hamza. Other politicians being investigated by NAB including Nawaz Sharif, Asif Ali Zardari have also been given bails on different accounts.
This article was written by Talha ul Huda.