NAB issues notices to PTI leaders in two KP inquiries

The National Accountability Bureau has issued notices to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leaders and their associates in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in two inquiries, one into the business dealings of former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser and the other into the assets of Dr Amjad Ali, the provincial information adviser said.

Samar Haroon Bilour, adviser to the KP government on information, said the notices were issued on November 13. In the Qaiser inquiry, she said, NAB asked for the records of partnership firms registered in the names of 10 people, including partnership deeds, business addresses and registration documents. Investigators are examining the business links of Qaiser, his family members and others connected to them.

In the second inquiry, into alleged corruption and assets beyond known sources of income, nine people have been told to appear as witnesses. Five of them have been summoned on November 19 over the purchase of an Islamabad property. According to the NAB notice cited by UrduPoint, the property is CLG-003 in Eighteen Society, and the five payments under examination are Rs1.5 million by Imran Ali, Rs4.9 million by Kamran Ali, Rs10 million by Kashif Ali, Rs6 million by Waqar Ali and Rs2 million by Ziaur Rehman, a total of Rs24.4 million. Investigators are tracing the source of the money.

Bilour said a second call-up notice had been issued in Dr Amjad Ali's case. Muhammad Tariq has been directed to appear before the bureau on November 17, after an earlier notice of October 28, and has been asked to produce further documents and financial records. NAB has also sought complete bank accounts and statements for four companies: Pioneers Residencia Private Limited, Pioneers Town Private Limited, Arabia Pioneers Cranes Trading and Transport Private Limited, and Pioneers Construction and Real Estate Consultants Private Limited.

Bilour said the notices and the requests for financial records formed part of inquiries into the PTI leadership in the province. No one has been charged in either matter and no arrests were reported. No public statement from NAB accompanied the notices; the details came from the provincial adviser and, in UrduPoint's account, from the notice itself.

The reports described Dr Amjad Ali differently. Minute Mirror called him a former provincial minister, while UrduPoint described him as a former special assistant to the KP chief minister.