An accountability in Lahore on Thursday granted the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) 14-day remand of Parliamentary Leader of the PML-N in the National Assembly Khawaja Muhammad Asif.

The NAB prosecutor informed the court that Asif, who had been arrested from Islamabad on Tuesday, was facing charges of accumulating assets beyond known sources of income.

Asif had acquired assets in the names of his wife and children as well, the prosecutor said, adding that initially worth Rs5.1 million, Asif’s assets now amounted to Rs812.1m.

The prosecutor told the court that the PML-N leader had not disclosed the means through which he accumulated these assets and requested physical remand of Asif so that the investigation against the PML-N leader could be completed.

However, Asif's counsel objected to the request, maintaining that the case against his client was “baseless” and “false”.

Asif alleged he had been shifted to NAB's custody in Lahore because Prime Minister Imran Khan "couldn’t get the desired result when an inquiry was launched against him by the watchdog's Rawalpindi chapter".

Asif's counsel told the court that the NAB, Rawalpindi, had summoned his client multiple times and Asif had appeared before the anti-graft watchdog each time. Besides, he appeared before the NAB, Lahore, all five times he was summoned, the counsel added.

He said all records asked for by the NAB too had been provided, objecting to the watchdog’s request of a physical remand.

The court, however, sent Asif on a physical remand till Jan 13, directing the NAB to submit a progress report on the investigation at the next hearing. It further directed the watchdog to let Asif meet his relatives, adding that Asif must be presented before the court at the next hearing as well.

A NAB team had moved Asif from Islamabad to Lahore after obtaining his transit remand from an accountability court on Wednesday. Asif was arrested a day earlier from outside the Islamabad residence of another senior PML-N leader, Ahsan Iqbal, where the former had come to attend a party meeting.

The dramatic arrest of the firebrand opposition leader had prompted a strong reaction from his party, with PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz alleging that NAB had acted like a “terrorist” and “kidnapped” Asif in the darkness of night.

PML-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif, in a tweet, had condemned the arrest and termed it a result of the “nexus between the selectors and the selected”.

“Such belittle acts reflect the government’s state of panic, but it is moving even closer to its end through such actions,” he wrote.

On Wednesday, speaking to the media outside the court premises in Islamabad, Asif had claimed PM Imran was behind his arrest and that efforts were underway to create a rift within the PML-N for the past two years.

Addressing a press conference later in the day, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Asif had been summoned by the NAB several times to come and answer questions to "satisfy" the anti-graft watchdog.

"It seems that he was not able to satisfy [NAB]. He could not give satisfactory answers to allegations against him regarding money laundering and assets beyond means. If he had given the money trail and an explanation, then maybe it would not have come to the point of arrest."

Charges against Asif

According to the NAB, investigations against the PML-N leader were initiated under Clause 4 of the NAB Ordinance 1999 and Section 3 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010.

“Before assuming the public office in 1991, the total worth of Khawaja Asif’s assets was Rs5.1 million which increased to Rs221m in 2018 after serving on different posts which do not match with his known sources of income,” said a statement issued by the NAB.

“Accused Khawaja Asif claimed to have received Rs130m from a UAE firm M/s IMECO, but during the course of investigation, he failed to present any solid evidence of receiving this amount as a salary,” it said, adding: “This clearly shows that the accused tried to prove his income through fake sources.”

Moreover, the NAB alleged that Asif was also running a benami firm 'Tariq Mir and Company' which was registered in the name of his employee. It said that an amount of Rs400m was deposited in the account of Tariq Mir and no sources of this huge amount were disclosed.