Court acquits Fawad Hassan Fawad in assets case

•  Fawad Hassan Fawad and others had filed applications.
• Presiding Judge Uzma Akhtar Chughtai announced verdict.
• NAB arrested Fawad in Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing reference.

LAHORE: An accountability court acquitted former principal secretary to prime minister Fawad Hassan Fawad, his wife and brother in a reference of assets beyond means made by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

Fawad and others had filed applications under section 265-K of CrPC seeking their acquittal in the reference.

Announcing her verdict, Presiding Judge Uzma Akhtar Chughtai allowed the acquittal applications of the accused persons.

The judge had reserved the verdict last week after hearing final arguments from the prosecution and the defence.

A counsel on behalf of the applicants had told the court that his clients did not want to invoke the new amendments in the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 to get any benefit on technical grounds but wanted the court to decide the acquittal applications on merits.

He said the NAB had made a false reference against the petitioners purely on political grounds.

The NAB alleged that an inquiry against Fawad was initiated following an order by the Islamabad High Court passed on a complaint filed by a lawyer namely Khurram Qureshi in 2017. Later, the inquiry culminated into a reference.

It said the complainant provided the bureau with evidence of five illegal properties owned by Fawad. It said the father of Fawad had retired from the army as a non-commissioned officer and later served in the forest department.

The bureau further alleged that Fawad’s father owned only one house measuring five-marla in Rawalpindi and added that there was a visible increase in the assets of the accused after 2014.

It accused the former bureaucrat of accumulating assets worth over Rs4bn through alleged corruption during his posting as principal secretary to prime minister and secretary implementation to chief minister.

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The NAB initially arrested Fawad on July 5, 2018 in Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing reference and later made another case of illegal assets against him. He remained behind the bars for almost 19 months.