Lahore
PML-N President and former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif has claimed that he as the chief executive of the province first unearthed the scam regarding Chiniot mines project.
Shahbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shehbaz were produced in the accountability court in Lahore on Wednesday in connection with a money laundering case. The PML-N president thanked the court for ordering provision of health facilities to him in the prison.
Regarding Chiniot mines project that was launched in 2007, Shehbaz Sharif said contract of the project was given without bidding to a man who was an American national and was also a brother of Pervez Musharraf’s secretary.
He said Arshad Waheed had 80 percent shares in it while the government of Punjab had the remaining 20 percent shares. The PML-N president said when he took action in the case, the man went to the Lahore High Court (LHC).
He claimed he, and not the NAB, had unearthed this scam. Shehbaz said that not only the contract was awarded to a blue-eyed boy but the entire exercise was also defended shamelessly. He further said that the court had then remarked how on earth Punjab government’s shares could be transferred to somebody else. He claimed that the NAB had filed a reference in the case 13 years later.
The PML-N president said if his intentions were bad he could have also minted money. “But I exposed the corruption despite political and other pressures on me,” Shehbaz boasted. He further said he had asked the NAB to dispose of the case in six months, but the Bureau woke up 13 years later.
Meanwhile, Land Tax Officer Ibrahim Malik, a witness in the money laundering case against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif, told the court that he had submitted to the NAB Shehbaz’s tax record up till 2001.—INP
