LAHORE: An accountability court on Monday turned down a request of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for further physical remand of former chairman and former chief executive officer of the Punjab Saaf Pani Company – Raja Qamarul Islam and Waseem Ajmal – and sent them to jail on judicial remand.

Earlier, the NAB officials produced both the suspects before the presiding judge, Syed Najamul Hassan, under strict security arrangements.

A deputy prosecutor of the bureau asked the court to extend physical remand of the suspects for another 14 days as investigation was yet to be completed.

The lawyers of the suspects opposed this request and argued that the NAB investigators had failed to produce any evidence against their clients during the 48-day long physical remand. They said reason behind arrest of the suspects was nothing but political victimisation.

Counsel for Mr Islam stated that the NAB had arrested his client one day after he was awarded ticket by the PML-N for the general election to contest against former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan from NA-59, Rawalpindi.

The counsel said further physical remand of the suspects, if granted, would serve no purpose but violate fundamental rights of the clients.

After hearing both sides, the court denied the bureau further custody of the suspects and sent them to jail on judicial remand.

The NAB alleged that Mr Islam was involved in awarding contracts of 84 water filtration plants at higher prices. It said the suspect got the contracts of 102 plants approved from the company’s board of directors and committed forgery in the documents.

It accused Ajmal of violating procurement rules and permitting installation of the water plants in Dunyapur tehsil beyond the scope of the project.

Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2018