Court extends detention of Asif in wealth case

An accountability court in Lahore on Thursday extended the judicial remand of Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz MP Khawaja Asif in the assets beyond income case against him. The court after extending judicial remand until June 17 adjourned the case.

Earlier this week, a Lahore High Court judge refused to hear Asif’s petition seeking post-arrest bail in the case, recusing himself from the case.

The National Accountability Bureau had arrested Asif from outside the Islamabad residence of another PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal in December on charges of being in possession of assets beyond his declared sources of income. According to a detailed charge sheet, NAB was carrying out investigations against Asif under Clause 4 of the NAB Ordinance, 1999 and Section 3 of the Anti-money Laundering Act, 2010.

“Before assuming the public office in 1991, the total worth of Khawaja Asif’s assets was Rs5.1 million which increased to Rs221m in 2018 after serving on different posts that do not match with his known sources of income,” said the statement.

“Accused Khawaja Asif claimed to have received Rs130 million from a UAE firm M/s IMECO, but during the course of the investigation, he failed to present any solid evidence of receiving this amount as a salary,” it said. “This clearly shows that the accused tried to prove his income through fake sources.”

Moreover, NAB alleged that Asif was also running a company, Tariq Mir and Company — registered in the name of his staffer — through his frontmen. It said that an amount of Rs400 million was deposited in the account of Tariq Mir and no sources of this huge amount were disclosed.