ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau has asked Parliamentary Affairs Minster Babar Awan, senior lawyer Sharifuddin Pirzada, former attorney general Malik Mohammad Qayyum and Ali Waseem (son of Waseem Sajjad) to appear before its investigators on Tuesday to record their statements on allegations that they had received millions of rupees from the owner of Haris Steel Mills to get a favourable verdict for him in a case relating the Rs9 billion Bank of Punjab scam.
‘The bureau has called them on the directives of the Supreme Court to record their statements,’ a senior NAB official told Dawn.
On November 24, Sheikh Mohammad Afzal, the owner of the mills, informed a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry that he had paid Rs35 million to Babar Awan, Rs10 to Sharifuddin Pirzada, Rs20 million to Malik Qayyum and Rs7.5 million to Ali Waseem to get a verdict in his favour.
‘The bureau’s investigators will ask them if they had received such a hefty amount from the mills owner as their fees or as bribe,’ the NAB official said, adding that the statements would be submitted to the court which might order formal proceedings on a new case.
The court had asked NAB to explain why the accused had not been questioned over the allegation.
NAB officials said the bureau had no powers to call a sitting minister to record his statement, but the situation had changed because of the court order.
Mr Awan could not be contacted for his comments despite repeated calls made to his residence and mobile phones.
Meanwhile, a press release issued by the Presidency on Monday said Mr Awan had called on President Asif Ali Zardari and ‘offered’ to resign from the cabinet to face the NAB inquiry.
The president, however, asked him to continue to work and said that an inquiry was not an adequate reason to resign from the cabinet.
Political analysts here do not appear to be convinced that Mr Awan was serious about his resignation offer and say that if he really wanted to quit the cabinet he should have submitted his resignation to the prime minister.
The owner of Haris Steel Mills had also informed the court that he had paid Rs400-500 million as bribe to former BoP president Hamesh Khan, Rs30 million to bank’s control risk manager Aziz Ahmed, Rs50 million to Haroon Aziz, Rs10 million to Shoaib Qureshi, Rs40 million to the head of the bank’s treasury Saleem Mirza and Rs5 million to Fazeel Asghar for helping him to leave the country because his name was on the exit control list.
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