An accountability court on Thursday indicted former federal minister Dr Arbab Alamgir and his wife Asma Alamgir, a former MNA, in a reference accusing them of possessing assets disproportionate to their known sources of income.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has alleged that both the suspects accumulated assets to the tune of Rs332 million, which were disproportionate to their known sources of income.

The couple, belonging to Pakistan People’s Party, have repeatedly claimed innocence and stated that all their assets were acquired through known sources.

While rejecting the charges against them, Asma said their assets have been in the family for the past 200 years.

"We even disclosed the properties that were not in our name," said Arbab, while his wife claimed that "NAB has turned into a joke of an institution".

While criticising NAB, Asma said, "The LDA reference against the Punjab Assembly speaker has been shut while we have been indicted in court. Why does the law that applied to Pervez Elahi speaker not apply to anyone else?"

"When I — being a woman — can come to the court myself, why can't those hiding under the umbrella of the law like Pervez Khattak and Mehmood Khan do the same?"

The court summoned four witnesses on January 24 to commence the trial.

NAB's reference

NAB claimed that during investigation it was revealed that both of the suspects had accumulated huge assets worth millions of rupees disproportionate to their income.

As per the reference, the inquiry was authorised on November 4, 2015 and was subsequently converted into investigation with the approval of NAB executive board on January 12, 2018.

NAB alleged that during investigation, it surfaced that the suspects accumulated movable and immovable assets including a house in G-11/3 Islamabad; 10-kanal land at Mauza Shah Alladitta, Islamabad; a bungalow in F-7/2 Islamabad; prize bonds; a land rover vehicle and several bank transactions.

NAB claimed that the reference was pertaining to the assets in Pakistan whereas a supplementary reference regarding their foreign assets would be filed after receipt of documentary evidence through Mutual Legal Assistance from foreign countries.

On November 8, 2018, the Peshawar High Court had disposed of a writ petition filed by Asma Alamgir against issuance of frequent call-up notices to her by NAB.

Details to follow