ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested on Thursday the works and services secretary of the Sindh government after his pre-arrest bail was dismissed by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in the fake accounts case.

The IHC division bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani rejected the pre-arrest bail of Sajjad Hussain Abbasi.

NAB accused Mr Abbasi of illegal allotment of amenity plots. During the course of hearing, Justice Farooq inquired as to why NAB had implicated only one person in the reference while the summary about allotment of plots had been signed by five people.

Justice Kayani said that the government’s officials whose job was to protect national wealth seemed to distribute it among favourite people like booty or looted items.

NAB may also nominate the Sindh chief minister as an accused in the case, he added.

Meanwhile, the Accountability Court of Islamabad in the Pink Residency reference has summoned all the accused on June 26. The court is scheduled to distribute a copy of the reference among the accused on the next date of hearing after which they would be indicted accordingly.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2019