LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has upgraded the inquiry against PML-N Punjab President Rana Sanaullah over income beyond means into investigation after properties worth over Rs400 million owned by him were unearthed.

The decision to upgrade the inquiry was made at the NAB regional board meeting held at the bureau’s provincial headquarters here on Friday.

On the other hand, Rana Sanaullah said that he had disclosed his property in his wealth statement at transaction value but the NAB was considering it at its current market value and trying to use it to make a new case against him related to income beyond means. “The NAB has to do this at the behest of Imran Khan and Shahzad Akbar,” Sanaullah told Dawn.

According to official sources, the combined investigation team had detected property worth over Rs400 million belonging to Rana Sanaullah and briefed the board in this regard.

“Rana Sanaullah’s property includes a farm house, a house in a posh locality, several plots and shops in Lahore and Faisalabad. Besides, he has an investment in a housing society,” a source said.

He said the PML-N leader had also accumulated properties in the name of his relatives. “NAB will summon Sanaullah in this investigation once it gets approval from the headquarters,” he said.

The NAB had initiated income beyond means investigation against the former Punjab law minister following his bail in the narcotics case from the Lahore High Court in December 2019. It had also launched a probe against Sanaullah for his alleged role in the change of the design of an underpass in his hometown of Faisalabad to benefit some people. But later it was dropped because of want of evidence against him.

Sanaullah said that he neither had any fake bank account nor benami property. “After a six-month probe, which the NAB calls inquiry, nothing was found with regards to illegal property of mine. Now, the NAB has been ordered to build a case on my declared property,” he said.

According to the PML-N, launching of a new investigation against Sanaullah proves his innocence in the drug recovery case.

“The NAB-Niazi nexus has launched a new investigation against Rana Sana after failing to prove anything in the narcotics case against him. When the PTI government failed to suppress the opposition with other cases, it came up with notorious assets beyond means investigation,” the PML-N said.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2020