LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Tuesday grilled PML-N President and Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s son-in-law Imran Ali Yousaf about the Punjab Power Development Company (PPDC) corruption scam.

According to officials, Mr Yousaf appeared before a combined investigation team of NAB that quizzed him for more than three hours for allegedly receiving millions of rupees from PPDC former chief executive officer Ikram Naveed, about some property transactions he made with the PPDC and another company of the Punjab government and possessing assets beyond his known source of income.

Last week, Mr Yousaf had skipped the NAB appearance. In its notice to Yousaf, NAB said: “In the inquiry against Ikram Naveed it has been revealed that you are in possession of evidence which relates to the commission of the said offences. You are also required to record your statement with respect to amounts transferred by Ikram Naveed to you.”

According to a source, “The CM’s son-in-law is also accused of getting Mr Navid appointed as PPDC CEO who allegedly committed massive corruption. NAB is quizzing Mr Yousaf on the information provided about him by Ikram Naveed.”

The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) had already carried out a probe against Naveed and Yousaf in 2016. It declared Naveed guilty of embezzling Rs450 million but gave a ‘clean chit’ to Yousaf.

The ACE in its investigation found that Mr Naveed had purchased 19 properties in his and his family members’ names and also unearthed his and his family members property worth over Rs1 billion. The property has been attached and their bank accounts frozen.

FIA: The Federal Investigation Agency cyber crime wing on Tuesday arrested a youth for allegedly blackmailing and harassing a girl.

According to an official, acting on the complaint of a girl that Mehr Imtiaz Ali of Sabzazar (Lahore) was blackmailing and harassing her, an FIA team raided his house and arrested him on Tuesday. The official said the suspect had threatened to upload pictures of the girl on social networking sites.

“The girl’s pictures have been recovered from his cell phone,” the official said. A case has been registered against the suspect.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2018