LAHORE: An accountability court in Lahore extended on Thursday the judicial remand of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Khawaja Asif until May 20 in money laundering and assets beyond means case.
Police brought the former hospital from the hospital and presented him before the Accountability Judge Asad Ali Chaudhry.
Former Sialkot mayor Chaudhry Tauheed Akhtar also reached the court to express solidarity with Asif.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) 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.
