LAHORE: PML-N MNA Khwaja Saad Rafiq alleges that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is using drugs and torture as tools for extracting ‘favourable’ statements from the people arrested in the Paragon Housing Society scam.

“Qaiser Amin Butt is a hapless person suffering from health issues and has somehow fallen in the hands of the NAB. He’s being drugged to extract statements from him that could favour the NAB case against me,” Mr Rafiq said in a media talk here on Sunday.

Being named as a ‘beneficial owner’ of the scheme, he alleged that the NAB was also using torture as a tool to make Butt and others in custody turn approver against him (Rafiq). He said the NAB officials investigating his case had personal grudges against him thus expecting a fair trial from them was impossible.

The MNA from Lahore had claimed a day ago that a magistrate before whom Butt did not give statement against him was transferred and then in the presence of the NAB officials a statement of its (NAB’s) choice was extracted from Butt in violation of the Lahore High Court orders.

The PML-N leader said he and his family had faced a tough time in the past for “speaking their mind”. But, he said, the harsh measures would fail to silence him.

Responding to a query, he said PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif’s silence must not be taken as part of any ‘deal’ and insisted that “silence also conveys a message”.

Talking about the PTI government, the former federal minister said “inept” and “incompetent” people had been imposed on the country.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2018